
Glass. 
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Significance of Birthdays 



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SIGNIFICANCE 

— ■ =OF= 

BIRTHDAYS 



By W. J. COLVILLE 



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MACOY PUBLISHING AND MASONIC SUPPLY CO., 
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LIST OF CONTENTS. 



The First Sign, Aries f . / . f 

The Second Sign, Taurus . *+*$t . ^ .. 



The Third Sign, Gemini 

The Fourth Sign, Cancer 

The Fifth Sign, Leo 

The Sixth Sign, Virgo 

The Seventh Sign, Libra 

The Eighth Sign, Scorpio 

The Ninth Sign, Sagittarius 

The Tenth Sign, Capricornus 

The Eleventh Sign, Aquarius 

The Twelfth Sign, Pisces . 

The Four Triplicities, General Summary 

Significance Names and Numbers 

List of Kindred Books * • 



• • • 



p« B8 

16 
30 






41 

51 

61 

69 

79 

90 

102 

111 

123 

132 

141 

153 

163 



Gems of the Months. 



Garnet, 


January, 


Fidelity. 


Amethyst, 


February, 


Sincerity* 


Bloodstone, 


March, 


Wisdom. 


Diamond, 


April, 


Innocence. 


Emerald, 


May, 


Happiness. 


Agate, 


June, 


Prosperity. 


Ruby, 


July, 


Constancy. 


Sardonyx, 


August, 


Loneliness. 


Sapphire, 


September, 


Kindness. 


Opal, 


October, 


Changeable, 


Topaz, 


November, 


Friendship. 


Turquoise, 


December, 


Success. 



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Our |Jkt£ in tfy* Hratoraal Zoiimt. 

"The wise man rules his stars, the foolish man 
obeys them," is a grand and truthful saying endorsed 
by all really enlightened astrologers. Just as there 
are two systems of astronomy — the heliocentric and 
the geocentric, so are there two systems of astrology ; 
and what is astrology, after all, but the psychic side 
of stellar science ; astronomy as such dealing only 
with its physical aspects. We teach that every 
world is alive, that intelligence is universal, that so- 
called dead, inert or insentient matter has no demon- 
strable existence, for life is everywhere and every 
form in nature is in some degree an expression of 
omnipresent intelligence. 

When some students asked us, after a lecture on 
astrology, how "those material planets" could exert 
any influence on intelligent human beings, we re- 
quested them to consider whether they were scien- 



8 The Significance of Birthdays 

tifically or philosophically justified in giving utter- 
ance to such an expression concerning the starry orbs. 
Every world that glows and moves in space is a 
manifestation, more or less perfect, of some mental 
and spiritual energy; and as there is no absolute in- 
ertia anywhere, the poetical and picturesque concep- 
tions of many romantic orientals are far nearer the 
sober facts of modern scientific discovery, than are 
the cold, barren, materialistic hypotheses of those too 
agnostic dogmatists in the realm of physics, who de- 
cide without reason that conscienceless, sensationless 
matter holds sway throughout immensity. 

All influences are reciprocal. No one can be in- 
fluenced by anything that has no point of contact 
with him by reason of some corresponding affiliation 
with something within him. So soon as this postulate 
is accepted, the study of astrology and all connected 
therewith is wonderfully simplified; and the entire 
theme is rescued from the embrace of empiricism and 
fatalism, and placed on a rational and practical basis. 
While there is unquestionably a considerable per- 
centage of truth in the information contained in the 
almanacs and guide books of Zadkiel, Raphael and 
other astrologers who publish manuals for the peo- 
ple, all their productions incorporate a fundamental 
and most injurious error whose influence upon sensi- 
tive and credulous people is baleful in the extreme. 
This error consists in the constantly reiterated state- 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 9 

ment that there are good and bad, benefic and malefic 
influences continually at work upon us, and that we 
are so subject to these by turn, that we are at best but 
little more than pieces of automatic mechanism oper- 
ated by agencies entirely beyond our own control. 

Whatever may be thought of the teaching con- 
veyed through our lessons, of one thing we are cer- 
tain; and that is that we are teaching a view of as- 
trology quite at variance with the fatalism we re- 
buke; our entire aim being to induce people to arise 
in their might and declare their individual liberty. 
We esteem even so modest a work as our present at- 
tempt a decided step toward the establishment of a 
school of philosophy whose ground-work is in the 
glorious asseveration that every human being holds 
the key to his own destiny within himself; and that 
upon an ever increasing development of individuality 
depends all progress for the human race. 

"One star differs from another star in glory;" and 
also in magnitude; but one star is not evil while an- 
other is good. We must now introduce our keynote 
motto: We will agree to differ, but never disagree. 
On the basis of this agreement we will proceed to 
review the astrological position, and see if we can- 
not learn to know ourselves and neighbors better by 
seeking to discover in what particular section of the 
great human whole we individually belong. 

It can scarcely be questioned by those who have, 



10 The Significance of Birthdays 

conducted any considerable research into the wise 
teachings of the most illustrious of ancient seers and 
sages, that in Egypt, Persia, Chaldea, India, and 
other celebrated historic lands there existed and 
throve in the long ago, a pure heliocentric science 
which combined astrology with astronomy, and 
taught that man was no puppet, but the ordainer of 
his own fate; the master of his own destiny. Such 
expressions as "every man has power to will his own 
destiny," met with occasionally in the novels of 
Marie Corelli and other popular authors, may be re- 
garded as heirloom sentences which have come down 
to the present day from distinguished centres of an- 
cient illumination ; they also embody the convictions 
of most truly helpful modern thinkers who, imbued 
with the best thoughts of the present age, are rapidly 
shaking off the shackles of medieval servitude and 
daring to pronounce themselves "deific babes," rather 
than wretched worms and abject sinners. Hermes 
Trismegistus and all the greatest teachers of ancient 
Egypt taught much concerning the correspondence 
of humanity with the heavens. The Archetypal Man, 
the Greatest Man or Maximus Homo, were favorite 
expressions with ancient sages, and since the recent 
wide dissemination of the writings of Emanuel Swed- 
enborg through Europe and America, these expres- 
sions have become comparatively familiar to modern 
students and scribes. Every human entity or ego 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 11 

contains all possibilities latent or dormant within; 
therefore it is reasonable to infer that it is within the 
range of inherent possibility for every one to develop 
what any one has already unfolded. But though 
this proposition be accepted there is here and now a 
law of use and order which it is well for every one 
of us to study, as at the present moment it is highly 
desirable that we all find our respective positions in. 
the Grand Man of the whole, and do that particular 
work which we can best perform, and do it in such 
surroundings as are most conducive to its perfect exe- 
cution. In these lessons we are not seeking to dog- 
matize as to where we shall be ten thousand years 
hence, or what we shall be doing then, for though 
our teachings are in some senses idealistic and trans- 
cendental, they are also intended to be intensely 
practical. Therefore, though our theme is exalted 
and expansive, we shall hug the shore pretty closely 
at present, only occasionally taking a dive out into 
the deep waters of our future probable achievements 
and attainments. 

We are here and now denizens of the planet 
Terra* endowed with distinctive individual hopes, 
faculties and aspirations which are in our eyes evi- 
dences of our certain capacities. We desire what 
we desire because we are what we are. Our aspira- 
tions grow out of our capacities ; our indwelling abil- 
ities are ever seeking expression in our longings; 



12 The Significance of Birthdays 

therefore, do we regard as sacred the yearnings of 
every soul. 

Expansion, not repression, is a theme that needs 
pursuing. Take a family of from two to six children, 
or a class of from ten to fifty, and what wide dissim- 
ilarity do we discern! No two children or adults 
are any more alike in desires and felt capacities than 
different varieties of trees, birds, flowers, animals and 
fishes are alike, yet all have certain well-defined abil- 
ities and necessities. Outside of food, shelter, air, 
exercise, and other universal necessaries how widely 
divergent are the requirements of a family or group ; 
yet it has long been the custom to force, regardless 
of any adaptability, the proverbial round child into 
a square hole, and, vice versa. Caste or class dis- 
tinctions have had very much to do with this fearfully 
unnatural state of affairs, and wherever there are 
sharply defined social classes, it is impossible, without 
razing the barriers which divide one caste from an- 
other, to consult natural disposition. 

Only a few score of years ago in Great Britain 
there were but five avenues of occupation open to a 
gentleman s son, viz.: the church, medicine, the law, 
the army and the navy, while all girls were brought 
up to regard marriage in their own set and genteel 
dependence the only lawful positions for females to 
occupy. In Germany and many other lands, occu- 
pations were hereditary; the very names of Miller, 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 13 

Baker, and many others proving that from genera- 
tion to generation, regardless of constitutional apti- 
tude or individual preference, sons followed their 
fathers' trades. 

In this more stirring and inquiring day such a 
condition of society is fast becoming insufferable and 
impossible; but not yet have parents and educators 
realized to anything like a sufficient extent the actual 
requirements of the approaching commonwealth. A 
new and infinitely higher social and industrial condi- 
tion is evolving through the recognition of the inalien- 
able right of every man to be himself and every 
woman herself, an original, not a copy. 

The influence of Emerson's essays is being increas- 
ingly felt every year, and when the sublime ethics 
embodied in those masterly pleas for individual lib- 
erty shall be universally acknowledged, society will 
be speedily emancipated and reconstructed on a nat- 
ural and enduring foundation of uncompromising 
equity. In the twelve lessons which follow this in- 
troductory discourse we shall take up the twelve 
signs of the Zodiac seriatim. As one by one we 
present twelve distinct varieties of human nature, and 
also consider blending types, we trust that many of 
our readers may be helped to understand themselves 
and their companions better. 

We aim to take a simply philosophic attitude with 
regard to these manifold types of human character; 



14 The Significance of Birthdays 

to pass them in review ; to exhibit them at their best ; 
to interpret them to themselves and to others, neither 
to eulogize nor to condemn. Before introducing 
these twelve consecutive discourses we will, ere we 
conclude this introductory essay, give the generally 
accepted physiological relation of the twelve signs of 
the Zodiac to the Human Body. 

Aries, the ram, whose period is from the Vernal 
Equinox, (March 20) to April 20, is considered 
the head of the Grand Man; therefore the Aries 
type of person is apt to be heady in the commanding 
sense, i e., given to leadership and enterprise. The 
next sign, Taurus, the bull, April 20 to May 21, 
corresponds to the neck and throat. Gemini, the 
twins, May 21 to June 21, signifies arms and shoul- 
ders. Cancer, the crab, June 21 to July 21, breast 
and stomach. Leo, the lion, July 21 to August 22, 
spine and heart. Virgo, the virgin, August 22 to 
September 23, solar plexus and internal organs. Li- 
bra, the balance, September 23 to October 22, kid- 
neys and loins. Scorpio, the scorpion, October 22 
to November 21, organs of reproduction. Sagitta- 
rius, the archer, November 2 1 to December 2 1 , hips 
and thighs. Capricorn, the goat, December 21 to 
January 21 , the knees. Aquarius, the water bearer, 
January 21 to February 21 , calves and ankles. Pis- 
ces, the fishes, February 21 to March 20, the feet. 

It is very interesting to test these comparisons by 



Oar Place in the Universal Zodiac 15 

collecting birthday information, as thereby much in- 
teresting and important confirmation of the general 
theory can easily be obtained. It is also instructive 
and entertaining to watch the blended characteris- 
tics of two, often very opposite signs, which is a 
conspicuous feature of many persons whose birthday 
occurs between the 20th and 23rd of any month, or, 
as astrologers say, "on a cusp," These blendings of 
types often endow natives with extraordinary vers- 
atility, sometimes with embarrassing eccentricity. 



%\}t |fe&f #t0it— JVrtes 

As plainly stated in our introductory essay, we 
regard all the signs of the Zodiac as equally good, 
though we fully endorse the statement that they wide- 
ly differ, one from the other. In the 49th chapter of 
Genesis, which contains the account of Jacob bless- 
ing his twelve sons, we find twelve distinct varieties of 
character vividly portrayed, in connection with de- 
scription of occupation and prediction concerning fu- 
ture career. The first son mentioned is Reuben, the 
first-born, whose character is singularly delineated as 
very complex. Reuben is described as the excel- 
lency of dignity and strength, and at the same time 
unstable as water, and consequently .unlikely to suc- 
ceed. 

Without attempting any elaborate Biblical inter- 
pretation, we will simply comment as practically as 
possible on the strange combination of elements 
which are at once a source of power and weakness 
in the same person ; and we will also venture to affirm 
that a better rendering of the spirit of the original 
text would make it read somewhat as follows: 
"Though thou art the beginning of strength, the ex- 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac \1 

cellency of dignity and power, if thou dost not van- 
quish thy unstable tendency, thou shalt not excel." 
Warnings are not arbitrary prognostications, and this 
fact modern prophets need to ponder well. Every 
type of disposition manifests some especial strength 
and some distinctive weakness. If the strong points 
in a character are diligently cultivated, the weak- 
nesses subside; but if the weaknesses are indulged, 
then the things which make for greatness are forced 
into abeyance and lie dormant, though they are never 
absolutely eradicated or destroyed. 

In these days when phrenology, physiognomy* and 
chirology are to the front, enlisting much attention, 
it behooves every teacher of Mental Science to in- 
telligently discriminate between the useful and the 
disastrous tendencies of such studies. These sciences 
are all genuine and serviceable, when we regard them 
as indicatory, but not arbitrary delineators of char- 
acter. 

Heads, faces, hands, and lines in any part of the 
body, when intelligently studied, reveal temperament, 
indicate special directions of genius, and also show 
at what particular stage of development a person now 
stands; but the entire body can be completely, and 
even rapidly, made over by the renewing, reforming 
action of altered thought; therefore there are no in- 
superable obstacles in the way of either mental or 
physical regeneration. 



18 The Significance of Birthdays 

Two facts need to be constantly borne in mind by 
all who study these lessons. First, our characters are 
born with us, and need to be studied so that we may 
learn to successfully co-operate in useful undertak- 
ings for the general good. Second, all undesirable 
traits are changeable malformations or inversions, and 
can be successfully overcome by an intelligent, per- 
sistent metaphysical process. 

Now to consider the Aries type in detail (birthday 
between March 20 and April 20. of any year) : 
Broadly speaking, this type of character is prophetic, 
energetic, prescient, fond of novelties, always looking 
forward and not backward, with a decided tendency 
toward extreme ideality. Persons who are confirmed 
in this sign are natural pioneers and leaders of thought 
and action, but as a rule they are far better adapted 
to direct the work of others than to execute the de- 
signs themselves. Architects and devisers of new 
styles in everything are numerous in this sign, and so 
are people who have the reputation for being head- 
strong, self-opinionated and hard to subdue under 
restraint of accepted usage and established prece- 
dent. Persons whose home is in this section of the 
Zodiac, or who occupy this province in the Grand 
Man are always enterprising and given to explora- 
tion in some field. If we consider an ordinary or 
merely frivolous example of this nature, we shall find 
the inventive faculty exercised in planning new 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 19 

amusements, devising new pastimes and setting new 
fashions to be observed in social entertainment and 
exhibited on dress parade in Vanity Fair. When 
the Aries person is intellectually unfolded then the 
same enterprising disposition is manifested in vastly 
superior ways, for such an one is given to prospect 
new fields of mental activity, and declare to the 
world prophetically the approaching advent of some 
revolutionary change in the kingdom of thought. 

When the moral nature in this sign is very largely 
unfolded the person is adapted to serve as a progres- 
sive ethical teacher; one who can brush away the 
cobwebs of antiquated errors, and show to the people 
a far more excellent manner of life. When the 
psychical element is in the ascendancy, great psycho- 
metric and clairvoyant ability is shown, and the 
far-reaching penetration of such a mind can be most 
advantageously employed in giving good and needed 
counsel regarding coming events and, as yet, un- 
dreamed of situations. 

It is easy enough to see that if this general delinea- 
tion is to any extent accurate, there are faults and 
weaknesses and even liabilities to disease common 
to this class of temperaments* which can be under- 
stood and rectified by any intelligent, persistent prac- 
titioner of Mental Science. As the strength of Aries 
is in all that pertains to the intellect and to quick 
forward vision, as well as to sensitive hearing, taste 



20 The Significance of Birthdays 

and smell, the extreme sensitiveness which is usually 
characteristic of so highly strung or keyed a nature 
may easily become a source of danger if the person 
be imperfectly balanced or has not reached a state 
of equipoise, which is invariably necessary to health 
and prosperity. 

The disorders common to the Aries type are un- 
pleasant noises in the head and ears ; a too great rush 
of blood to the brain; sleeplessness and all other 
symptoms peculiar to hyper-sensitive constitutions. 
But because there are tendencies to these specific 
weaknesses no one need succumb to them; they 
can all be vanquished when the right mental attitude 
is taken and maintained. 

In considering Aries as the head and face it is well 
to remark that as four out of the five universally 
acknowledged bodily senses are situated in the 
head and face exclusively, only one (touch) being 
extended over the body, the fullest expression of 
Aries would be in a person whose senses generally 
are unusually keen and ever on the alert; and if 
Aries be represented in one- twelfth part of the hum- 
an family, it is not at all too much to say that eleven- 
twelfths of the people are not calculated to fill lead- 
ing positions; and not being adapted to such offices 
in a normal state of society they will not seek them, 
for their desires will not prompt them in that direc- 
tion It is a fact that cannot be disputed that the 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 21 

number who are really ambitious to fill conspicuous 
places and lead the thought of others, is compara- 
tively small. Most men, as well as most women, 
prefer a comparatively obscure to a conspicuously 
public career; and far fewer men than at present 
appear anxious for social prominence, would seek it 
if the artificial pretense and unmerited emoluments, 
now often attached to it, were withdrawn. 

What we mean by a desire for a special field of 
occupation is a desire for the work itself, not for the 
fancied advantages which may accrue from engag- 
ing in it ; and it is on the basis of this true desire that 
we are seeking to upbuild a new educational sys- 
tem, natural instead of artificial. 

Froebel, the father of the kindergarten system 
in Germany, said that never more than fifteen schol- 
ars should be allotted to one teacher ; and we would 
offer an amendment to even that resolution, by urging 
that so thorough a scrutiny should be made of all the 
children submitted to a board of examiners for classi- 
fication in the schools that only children who can 
profit by the same discipline and show signs of adap- 
tion to the same pursuits, should be called upon to 
study together. This provision grows far more im- 
perative as age advances and the need for a choice 
of profession draws near. 

Aries children are very often a source of great 
discomfort in homes and schools where they are not 



22 The Significance of Birthdays 

understood, and especially where repression rather 
than expression is the end desired. Such children are 
restless, prying, inquisitive, always questioning and 
very seldom contented to "let well enough alone." 
Such enterprising natures exhibit a much larger de- 
velopment of the perceptive than of the reflective 
faculties; therefore, though they may be genuine 
seers and the subjects of reliable visions, they are not 
prepared to stand alone and carry out their schemes 
unaided. As these children are often cruelly re- 
pressed and made to suffer greatly, both in mind and 
body, from the ignorance of those who are over 
them, we deem it a humanitarian effort to seek to 
explain them to others; for not infrequently they fail 
to understand their own natures and cannot interpret 
the emotions which sway them. 

Very sensitive natures have usually a tendency to 
fly off at tangents. Genius frequently accompanies, 
or is accompanied by, pronounced eccentricity. No 
one doubts the genius of Lord Byron or that of 
Edgar Allan Poe, yet no one can pronounce either 
of these brilliant poets a well balanced man. To see 
something ahead, not quite plainly; to know that it 
is coming, without being able to calculate the time of 
its advent; to be fully aware of the part you are 
yourself called to play in connection with its ap- 
proach, and yet to lack the external means for carry- 
ing out your purpose, is always trying, and to an 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 23 

intense, impetuous nature, it is exasperating in the 
extreme. Idealists and visionaries are full of good 
schemes and noble projects; they usually stand for 
freedom and equity as against tyranny and anti- 
quated misbeliefs ; but they are not, as a rule, prac- 
tical in the commonplace sense of that word. 

All artistic occupations seem favorable to the 
Aries type ; and children who are permitted to carry 
out their artistic promptings undisturbed will often 
give satisfactory evidence to all interested in their 
welfare, that though they would be illy adapted for 
farming or mechanical pursuits, they can grow up to 
render priceless service to the most uncompromising 
utilitarians by prospecting ahead and planning the 
way for coming inventions of great practical utility. 

Two great questions, why? and how? seem ever 
on the lips of the Aries child, who often delights to 
pull a watch to pieces to see what makes it go. At 
this point constructiveness and destructiveness seem 
very closely allied, as destructive measures are often 
adopted to secure ends of new construction. The 
analytical faculty when not held in leash by other 
tendencies often leads to the cruelties and atrocities 
of the vivisectionist's torture chamber, and even to 
the stupendous error of the famous painter who slew 
his model in the interest of realistic art so as to faith- 
fully depict upon canvas the actual expression caught 
from a human being expiring in agony. 



24 The Significance of Birthdays 

As our philosophic task is simply to examine and 
compare and trace tendencies to their source, we find 
no difficulty in this dispassionate review of twelve 
great varieties of human expression, when called up- 
on to adhere closely to the sovereign motto of Mental 
Scientists, "All is Good." 

All is good, but order is heaven's first law; and 
when we are in disorder it is as though we mistook 
ink for coffee or even undertook to eat wearing ap- 
parel and dress ourselves in food stuffs. Everything 
has its use, place and time, and this is all that the 
wise astrologer ever seeks to inculcate beyond teach- 
ing people as far as possible to practically apply an 
optimistic view of life to every undertaking. 

As the Aries type of mind is very inquiring it is 
apt to be skeptical, even though given to a love and 
pursuit of the marvellous; and here do we strike a 
very remarkable combination which is apparently of- 
tenfeies extremely inconsistent. Skepticism and 
credulity go hand in hand, as they are both extreme, 
and extremes can always meet. The best example 
of Aries is never without something of the butting 
quality of the ram, which— endowed with horns — is 
admirably qualified to push obstacles from the path, 
when they threaten to impede progress. There is 
very little cautiousness ordinarily displayed in this 
sign ; intrepidity is far more common. The danger is 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 25 

in the direction of leaping before looking ; or of dis- 
playing zeal untempered with discretion. 

A companion, teacher, or adviser needed by a dis- 
tinctly Aries person is a sympathetic, intelligent man, 
woman or child, who can see the beauty of ideals 
and appreciate venturesomeness and yet be sufficient- 
ly matter-of-fact to discourage rash action by coun- 
seling a little more consideration before an irrevoca- 
ble step is taken. There are many people who have 
enough of the Aries quality to make them enterpris- 
ing and energetic, who are yet sufficiently modified 
by counteracting influences to avoid running to ex- 
tremes or acting too precipitately in any circum- 
stances. 

If the date of birth is immediately before or after 
March 20, the characteristics of Pisces will probably 
be intermingled ; and these are of a nature to afford 
firm anchorage to the past before starting out on new 
voyages of discovery. If the birthday is about the 
20th of April or a little before that date, then the 
patient, plodding, persevering, executive qualities of 
Taurus make an excellent contribution toward bal- 
ancing the tendency to flightiness which is always 
the bane of Aries. No words are more truly descrip- 
tive of the complete Aries type than heady and head- 
strong; but be it always remembered that in so far as 
any characteristic exclusively manifested produces 
aberration, some counteracting tendencies which lie 



26 The Significance of Birthdays 

dormant within every one of us can be awakened 
through the steady action of desire, and concentrated 
expectancy symphonizing with desire. 

Before turning our attention to the subject of the 
next lesson (Taurus) it will be admissible to say a 
few words on the various planets which all astrolo- 
gers admit exert a decided influence in addition to 
the houses or signs. 

Mercury rising at birth denotes quickness of mo- 
tion, desire for travel and reasonable likelihood of 
success in commercial or mercantile pursuits. Mer- 
cury in mythology, represented with wings at his 
heels ; ever associated with quicksilver, proverbial for 
its volatility ; aptly designated the swift messenger of 
the gods, describes an extremely enterprising indi- 
vidual. Mercury in Aries would describe the most 
impulsive, excitable creature imaginable; one who 
would never like to keep still two minutes together; 
one who would thrive upon constant activity and be 
quite unhappy and disconsolate unless things all 
about him were in a continual buzz and stir. We all 
know such people, and though the vibrations they 
are perpetually throwing out are intensely wearing 
upon some natures, they make excellent healers in 
cases where gout, rheumatism and other chronic 
states of congestion constitute the malady. The work 
of such people lies with those who are subject to 
cold extremities ; whose hands and feet are clammy ; 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 27 

whose blood circulates sluggishly; whose mental ac- 
tion is torpid- and who need a general waking up. 
But to introduce such feverish, excitable persons to 
those whose ailments are of a febrile nature would be 
to make the greatest mistake imaginable. 

Venus always denotes love of the beautiful; all 
the fine arts, music, painting, sculpture and all dec- 
orative work may be said to be under the patronage 
of this lovely goddess, to employ the mythologic 
phrase. Venus in Aries is very different from Mer- 
cury in the same sign, though there is a similarity in 
the temperament of all Aries people ; but whereas the 
Mercurian influence would lead toward commercial 
activity and money making, the influence of Venus 
would tend to a cultivation of distinctively artistic 
traits ; though of course it would be quite natural and 
legitimate for a person thus endowed to earn a good 
living as some sort of an artist. Mars we regard as 
the intellectual planet per se, and to the influence 
of Mars we trace scientific proclivities of the most 
marked type. Aries people who are strongly influ- 
enced by Mars may or may not be combative in the 
pugilistic sense; (they never are unless their develop- 
ment is very inferior;) but they are invariably given 
to the prosecution of scientific researches; their in- 
tellectual development is often phenomenally great, 

Jupiter, which denotes sphericity, a well rounded 
electro-magnetic temperament in which intellect and 



28 The Significance of Birthdays 

emotion are pleasantly united, gives, if rising at the 
birth of an Aries child, that good-natured, happy 
disposition, which, when united with the enterprise 
and inquisitiveness which Aries always exhibits, tones 
down asperities, mellows and sweetens the nature and 
proves an efficient safeguard against the many dan- 
gers which beset the path of the over-impulsive and 
unwary. Saturn gives always a tone mysterious, 
and inclines the nature toward taciturnity, while 
Mercury is ever given to loquacity. Saturn's reputed 
evil influence is only attributable to the difficulty 
which most people experience in appreciating, much 
less comprehending, the occult; and though the uni- 
versal testimony concerning Saturn is that it makes 
against, rather than for, material prosperity, its influ- 
ence conduces to patient studies which ultimately 
lead to intelectual renown arid victory. Aries peo- 
ple with strong Saturnine tendency are silently enter- 
prising, and make excellent students of occult arts 
and lore. 

Herschel or Uranus is always peculiar, and when 
it is in the ascendant in Aries, the eccentricities of 
the individual are extraordinarily conspicuous. Nep- 
tune is also regarded as exerting an influence sing- 
ularly remote from the ordinary, and may fairly be 
looked upon as standing for purely spiritual direc- 
tions of mind and feeling which lie quite outside the 
region of normal mundane speculation, 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 29 

As typical instances of the Aries character, as- 
trologers have cited such notable men as William the 
First of Germany, Bismark, and Napoleon the Third 
of France, whose careers have certainly been marked 
by enterprise and ambition and attended by many 
trying and peculiar circumstances. 

The student will kindly bear in mind that the 
subject in detail can only be thoroughly understood 
by protracted study. 



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Taurus, the bull, whose period is from April 21 
to May 21, connects Aries, the head, with Gemini, 
the arms and shoulders of the Grand Man, and 
stands for all that sort of usefulness which may 
reasonably be expected from a neck or bridge con- 
necting two important sections of a concrete and 
coupled anatomy. The distinctly Taurus type of 
man or woman often literally possesses a strong, 
thick neck, and is in many ways far better adapted 
to act as a servant than as a master in the conduct of 
any enterprise. But remember, we use the word 
servant in the broad, inclusive sense; we intend to 
convey no thought pertaining to servile or demeaning 
positions. As the motto of the Knights Templar 
and of the Prince of Wales is the German "Ich 
dien" (I serve), and there can hardly be a higher 
or lordlier position than that of the heir-apparent to 
a throne except the very seat upon the throne itself; 
so when the president of a republic is regarded as the 
chief magistrate appointed by the voting people to 
execute their will, the kind of servant indicated by 
the sign Taurus is by no means one who fills a so- 



. 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 31 

called menial position. It is, however, a notable fact 
that men who are chosen to fill the highest offices in 
the gift of a nation are rarely men of great originality 
of thought or action. With but few extraordinary 
exceptions, the highest places in the public gift are 
occupied by men whose party has placed them where 
they stand, rather than their individuality. 

Aries sends few people to stations where subjectiv- 
ity to the will of others is considered a desideratum ; 
and Aries people are, for the most part, so individ- 
ualistic and eccentric that they are in a decided, 
though often a very cultured and intelligent, min- 
ority. Aries people are, moreover, given to build- 
ing castles in the air; there are many architects 
among them; but the solid, substantial, practical 
builders are among the bulls who keep close to earth, 
to cultivate its natural resources, direct its finance, 
and carry into actual execution the romantic dreams 
of the impulsive members of the province of Aries. 

General Grant and Louis Kossuth are both cited 
as conspicuous examples of the Taurus type, which 
is strong, plodding, persistent, capable and executive. 

Though no two signs can be more opposite in 
their characteristics and tendencies than Aries and 
Taurus, they are opposites, but not contradictories. 
By this we mean that two persons, the one confirmed 
strongly in Aries, and the other in Taurus, though 
extremely dissimilar in tastes and feelings, can, if 



32 The Significance of Birthdays 

both are intelligent, soon learn not only to appreciate 
each other's excellencies, and live side by side in 
peace and good will, but so far co-operate that one 
finds himself really essential to the welfare of the 
other in the conduct of a joint enterprise, the success 
of which depends upon diverse but harmonized 
activities. 

To use a musical metaphor, Aries and Taurus 
may be unlike as two such instruments as an organ 
and a cornet, or a piano and a violin, or dis- 
similar as two such voices as a high soprano and a 
deep contralto; yet in both instrumental and vocal 
rendition, the two unlike instruments can be played 
delightfully together, and the two very dissimilar 
voices can blend in a charming duet. 

Two rules need always to be remembered, viz.: 
that persons who work best together are either closely 
allied in feeling and attainments, or else extremely 
different; also that when any :4wo well-meaning 
people do not get along together, a third person, who 
is a sincere mutual friend, can act as a solvent often- 
times, and so harmonize them that they come to re- 
semble oil and water united by the action of an ef- 
ficient chemical, which closely resembles neither one 
nor the other, but can unite the twain until they be- 
come one to all intents and purposes. 

To typically illustrate some experiences with de- 
cided Aries and Taurus people who are drawn to- 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 33 

gether and work in concert, we will picture a com- 
mittee meeting where Mr. and Mrs. Ram and Mr. 
and Mrs. Bull have rightfully equal voice and in- 
terest. Our good friends, the Rams, are extremely 
progressive. Their eyes are always fixed on a goal 
ahead. They have little or no respect for ancient 
customs and accepted usages. To them the senti- 
ment embodied in the phrase "what was good enough 
for my grandfather is good enough for me," is de- 
testable, as nothing in their eyes is so unpalatable as 
stagnation. Keen-sighted, with an abundance of 
foresight, very ardent in their desires to introduce in- 
novations, they are rather given to follow in the 
track of those Athenians mentioned in the Acts of 
the Apostles, 1 7th chapter, who spent their entire 
time in the search for novelties, or in the considera- 
tion of new things. Aries people are always apt to 
love new things because they are new, without al- 
ways sifting them? to their foundations to discover 
how valuable or solid may be the foundation on 
which they rest. But our ideal Mr. and Mrs. Ram 
are very intelligent as well as progressive people, and 
not at all disposed to be willfully reckless. They 
are indeed veritable prophets. They can and do 
see ahead farther than other members of the com- 
mittee of which they form a part; but though they 
see clearly what ought to be done, they are not ways- 
and-means people; therefore, were it not for their 






34 The Significance of Birthdays 

good, practical neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Bull, they 
would not get their point carried, or their schemes 
reduced to practice. 

Taurus sits still, patiently listening and calmly 
considering the feasibility of the reformatory move- 
ments proposed by Aries; and when this sign rises 
to its feet and proposes actually to take certain defi- 
nite steps to accomplish what Aries has suggested 
and foreseen as highly desirable — without, however, 
seeing how to bring it about — everybody begins to 
realize that there are builders as well as architects 
on the board of directors of the association. 

Taurus is not prescient or inventive. It does not 
follow Paul's advice to forget the things behind and 
press forward to the prize ahead; but though lack 
ing in originality and suggestive enterprise, were it 
not for Taurus, fine schemes would remain on paper ; 
excellent theories would abound, but they would not 
be reduced to practice. 

Aries is the sign of theorists and idealists. Taurus 
is the sign of practitioners and realists; while those 
who are on the cusp combining the leading attributes 
of both, are those rata aves who are both idealistic 
and realistic in marked degree. 

We will now instance a happily married couple 
husband Aries, wife Taurus. The man in this case 
is a singularly high-strung, nervous fellow, very much 
given to pushing business and going forward with 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 35 

enterprises which his sanguine temperament assures 
him will be successful, though he can never explain 
to himself or any one else where the money is coming 
from or horv the scheme will prosper. His wife is a 
quiet, thoughtful woman, a good home maker and an 
excellent mother, as unlike her spouse as can be ; but 
she loves him, respects him, believes in him and aids 
him. When he is full of some rather wild ambition 
he talks it all over with her, and though she is no 
match for him in ingenuity and eloquence she never- 
theless shows him just how to set to work to put 
machinery in motion to mature his cherished plan. 
He may at first chafe a little at her slow, methodical 
suggestions. He may somewhat rebel at nature's 
leisurely evolutionary processes, but he is the seed 
sower and she is the one who waters the earth after 
the seed is in the ground, and carefully nurtures and 
protects it during the germinative period. 

When we read in the New Testament that Paul 
planted and Apollos watered, and then came the 
increase ; we have it suggested to us that two friends, 
fellow-workers, one of the Aries and the other of the 
Taurus type, combined their impulse and executive 
force and secured, through the working of the un- 
changing law of the universe, a plentiful crop of 
satisfactory results. Of course it is just as likely that 
the wife may be Aries and the husband Taurus, as 
vice versa; but in that case, if they understood and 



36 The Significance of Birthdays 

appreciated each other, the result would be exactly 
the same as though it were the other way. 

An Aries child is usually restless, volatile, and 
given to incessant motion ; thinks quickly, eats, walks 
and does everything hurriedly; but a Taurus child 
is often thought to be heavy and not so bright. 
Though the ideas grasped and externalized by the 
Taurus type of mind are often deeply profound, it 
is useless to expect very swift action when dealing 
with individuals in this section of the Zodiac. 

The ram has always been represented as slain, 
from the foundation of the world, and offered up in 
sacrifice upon the equinoctial crossing. Aries is the 
sign of pioneer martyrs, those who pave the way for 
great achievements on the basis of their discoveries 
and declarations, after they have passed from mortal 
sight. Taurus people are apt to enjoy very com- 
fortable worldly conditions. They are frequently 
money-getters and money-keepers. Bankers, brokers, 
and those who speculate profitably and take charge of 
accumulated savings are frequently found in Taurus. 
Aries often makes an excellent presiding officer, an 
attractive and eloquent acting chairman ; but Taurus 
is selected as treasurer of the corporation. When 
the sacred Apis, the white bull, was worshiped and 
led in solemn procession on festal days in ancient 
Egypt, there was a great deal of astrological knowl- 
edge displayed in such ceremonies; and the present 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 37 

use of the word buil on the stock exchange har- 
monizes quite well with the Taurus disposition. The 
bull is not a ferocious animal unless aroused, but 
when angry he can fight furiously; and this is gen- 
erally true of Taurus people. Their reserve force 
and stored energy are great. They are very tenacious, v 
and can afford to bide their time and await the 
favorable moment for action. As friends they are 
usually reliable, and may be depended upon in times 
of real necessity ; and so wealthy are they in interior 
resources, that out of their abundance of latent 
strength they can give out sustaining vigor and truly 
helpful sympathy without suffering any sense of 
depletion themselves. 

Aries people incline to the theory of Mental 
Science. They are good theoretical demonstrators, 
and in cases where a patient needs quickening and 
rousing to action, their mental treatments are fre- 
quently extremely efficacious. Taurus people are 
naturally disposed to giving magnetic treatment. 
They make excellent masseurs, and as attendants 
upon weak, nervous, timid persons, they have few 
equals and no superiors. Being very practical, they 
usually want to see just how a thing is to be done 
before they will take hold of it. They are often a 
little over-cautious and sometimes rather too leisurely 
in action ; but they are sure, and can be safely relied 
upon. As Aries people, when afflicted, are chiefly 



38 The Significance of Birthdays 

prone to disorders of the head, Taurus people who 
have not learned to conquer undesirable tendencies, 
are most prone to troubles in the neck, and often, 
if they are conservative and stolid, they suffer se- 
verely in that direction. Nothing can be truer than 
the words of Ella Wheeler Wilcox, "There is noth- 
ing we cannot overcome." But those beautiful 
optimistic words of a gifted poetess would be mean- 
ingless if there were no tendencies to be mastered. 
"He that overcometh shall inherit all things;" but 
this statement also would mean nothing if there were 
no trials to encounter, efforts to make and victories 
to win. 

The student will plainly perceive that our teaching 
is that every type of character has its special excellen- 
cies and its peculiar temptations. Individualization 
is the sole and sovereign antidote to every conceivable 
weakness, no matter whether it be inherited or subse- 
quently acquired. No abnormal state is natural, and 
no disease is unconquerable. But in order to under- 
stand ourselves and others it is highly desirable that 
we take temperament into consideration, for by so 
doing we shall greatly enlarge the circuit of our use- 
fulness and qualify ourselves to do a much greater 
work in truly teaching and healing the multitude than 
we could otherwise accomplish. 

If a horoscope is cast and the planets are regarded 
as well as the sign, then the varieties within the 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 39 

Taurus type can easily be explained, as follows: 
Mercury rising will cause a Taurus person to be 
singularly active and energetic, but the executive and 
fecundative quality of Taurus will only be affected 
thereby so far as direction is concerned. The essen- 
tial capability will remain just the same, only the 
native will be more impulsive in his executiveness 
than are those whose planetary connections are dif- 
ferent. 

If Venus be in the ascendant, then the executive 
faculty will take an artistic turn. 

If Mars be most prominent, then the execution 
will probably be distinctly scientific, and to an extent 
iconoclastic. 

Jupiter, which is always amiable, expansive and 
comprehensive, would endow a Taurus person with 
a singular amount of natural good-nature, and incline 
to a very consoling, happy, contented disposition. 

Saturn, always problematical and occult, would 
make the Taurus type extremely silent and medita- 
tive, causing a child to prefer a silent corner with a 
book, to the busy playgrdand and his convivial 
playmates. 

Uranus, always peculiar,' would give the Taurus 
native a decided tendency to work alone, persistently, 
at some strange work which he would probably care- 
fully secrete and carry forward surreptitiously. 

Neptune in Taurus would give a tendency to 



40 The Significance of Birthdays 

spirituality reduced to a science, and we can hardly 
think of any more practical type of religionist than 
such an one, who would care more for good deeds 
than well-sounding creeds, and would, therefore, be 
a very desirable member of society in all respects. 

To sum up Taurus, we need only add that he does 
a great deal of the practical work of the world, and 
is greatly needed as a companion and co-worker with 
Aries, who precedes him. No better characterization 
of the two can be given than to say that the former 
is the architect and the latter the builder; Aries, the 
theorist; Taurus, the executant. 

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®tomt* 

After passing from Aries through Taurus we come 
to the most versatile sign in the entire Zodiac. Those 
persons who are decidedly of the Gemini type can 
never content themselves with a single occupation or 
pursuit. They have always two and often several 
strings to their bow. While for the majority of per- 
sons a single occupation may suffice, two trades are 
necessary to those who embody the characteristics of 
the Twins, which are distinct though not separate. 
It being no part of our philosophy to look upon any 
type of nature as undesirable, though no two decided 
types can possibly be alike, we teach consistently with 
the sum of our philosophy that the characteristic ver- 
satility and even volatility of Gemini people is a sign 
in their favor, as it enables them to execute many de- 
signs; to carry many purposes into effect; to avoid 
ruts, and to attain a surprising degree of command 
over environments, by quickly adapting themselves to 
differing situations. 

As Gemini stands for the shoulders, arms and 
hands of the Grand Man, it naturally expresses 



42 The Significance of Birthdays 

duality. There is but one head and but one neck to 
the body, though the head is divided into many sec- 
tions; but shoulders, arms and hands are distinctly 
right and left. There are two of each, and certainly 
the hands and arms can act apart, and can even act 
in defiance of each other. The two sides of the 
human organism denote respectively intellect and af- 
fection. When emotion and reason are completely 
blended, so that they always act together, we witness 
so happy a combination of forces and activities that 
the individual thus spiritually married within himself 
is a pattern of equanimity, and is a singularly suc- 
cessful healer as well as teacher; but when a person 
of the Castor and Pollux type expresses divergence 
and conflict, then as a house divided against itself 
such an one is very likely to suffer from much 
desolation. 

No type of person needs so much drilling on the 
subject of unity and co-operation as do those in 
Gemini, whose period is from about May 20 to June 
20. Instructions on how to blend the understanding 
and the will, to unite desire and expectation, are 
peculiarly valuable and most necessary to persons of 
this stamp; and Gemini people readily take to new 
ideas, and are not usually limited or creed-bound, but 
disposed to launch out into fields of investigation, if 
only to gratify their love of change; they make ex- 
cellent pupils, though they are not always very con- 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 43 

stant The special tendency which needs disciplin- 
ing and regulating in such people is their tendency 
to fly off at tangents, to leave things incomplete as 
they rush forward to some new task. The studios 
of Gemini people are often completely littered with 
unfinished books, paintings, statues and other artistic 
works, which they have begun but never finished. 
When this erratic tendency is properly regulated 
Gemini people are charming, by reason of the di- 
versity of their accomplishments and the number of 
the positions they can fill. As a rule they are ex- 
cellent people to call upon in an emergency, as they 
usually know how to act in situations widely different 
from the positions they generally occupy. They 
often work in stores as clerks and book-keepers, and 
still they are quite talented artists or well up in some 
branch of professional knowledge. 

Superficial observers often scold Gemini children 
for their lack of steady perseverance in a single task; 
but profounder students of human nature make 
instant friends with them through sympathetic appre- 
ciation of their needs. There are children who can 
devote three, four or even five consecutive hours day 
after day to a regular routine course of studies and 
enjoy it; for mental pursuits are so adapted to their 
constitution that they need but little physical exer- 
cise beyond what they get going to school and re- 
turning home, and moving about in the ordinary dis- 



44 The Significance of Birthdays 

charge of a sedentary occupation. Others again 
detest the confinement of any school room where the 
head is taxed and the hands and feet are not given 
much opportunity for motion. In the former case an 
intellectual course of activity harmonizes with the 
needs of student; in the latter, out-door work in- 
volving pedestrian exercise is the desideratum. 

Gemini children and adults cannot be satisfied with 
one or the other, for they need a combination of both ; 
thus if some of the excellent suggestions contained in 
Dr. J. R. Buchanan's "New Education" were faith- 
fully carried out, Gemini children would not com- 
plain as they do, and grown people would not find 
their stereotyped rounds of engagements as irksome 
as they often are. If all persons understood their 
own needs sufficiently to voice them and minister to 
them, there would be very few invalids and very few 
sad people upon earth, but as long as ignorance pre- 
vails, wants will be disregarded or uncomprehended. 
Consequently sufferings will continue to urge us for- 
ward to the acquisition of more knowledge so that 
we may better our condition. 

A Gemini person must have change of thought, 
of scene, of occupation, and the less unfolded he is 
on the higher planes of his nature, the more he re- 
quires external variety. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller 
Ossoli, may be cited as extremely advanced illus* 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 45 

trations of the Gemini character; but such rare and 
high specimens are models rather than samples in 
the case. These models, however, display the char- 
acteristics of this dual sign very prominently and un- 
mistakably, but so metaphysically as to cause them 
to be beacon lights, as they certainly are, to lead 
others forward to the heights they have already 
scaled. Emerson is one of the strongest literary 
magnets in the reading world to-day, and for ver- 
satility we know of scarcely any other author who 
can rank with him. Mentally Emerson travelled 
everywhere. Therefore it was not necessary for 
him to take his body over the globe. Gemini people 
are globe trotters till they have found the centre of 
attraction within. Then they can stay at home and 
be the Mahomet who can call the mountain to him- 
self, not needing any longer to make a pilgrimage 
to the mountain in order to breathe its bracing air 
and feel the invigorating influence thrown out by its 
massive, majestic proportions, 

Queen Victoria is a great historic example of the 
Gemini type. One who deeply studies England's 
famous queen will discern that in that remarkable 
woman were embodied many decidedly opposite 
qualities. Without the least disrespect it may be 
said that Victoria's reign was one of the most bril- 
liant and eventful, and at the same time inconsistent., 
reigns in history. 



46 The Significance of Birthdays 

The Gemini type of mind is always astonishing 
those who seek to fathom it with perplexing para- 
doxes, which appear like, but are not, contradictions. 
A person who is both generous and parsimonious, 
or bold and timid, or conservative and progressive, is 
an enigma. Still these opposite tendencies need not 
be contradictory, as they are only expressions of a 
nature rich in manifold possibilities. A man of one 
idea, one who rides a hobby, is not difficult to sum- 
marize ; but a nature which shows forth diametrically 
opposite traits, and yet does not plead guilty to the 
charge of inconsistency, is surely a study for the 
anthropologist. 

Astrology can be turned to the best possible ac- 
count and do an unlimited amount of good, if people 
who are looking into it, will first read their own and 
others' birth signs in a way calculated to interpret 
human nature to itself without allowing themselves 
to be influenced even in the slightest degree by a doc- 
trine of blind fatalism, which is of all false dogmas 
the most depressing and injurious ever invented by 
human ignorance and superstition. 

In reading character, as well as in reading horo- 
scopes, with a view to discovering character, it is all 
essential that the student should never lose sight of 
the facts that faults and ailments are only aberrations 
or inversions, negative results of ignorance. The 
greater force of character any one possesses, the 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 47 

greater necessarily is his power. Power must be 
understood and wisely directed, or it may be ex- 
hibited in a most disorderly and destructive manner. 

Gemini people ar© almost always impulsive and 
quick-witted, as well as versatile. They like to have 
many things going at once. Therefore, if they allow 
themselves to run wild, and do not discipline their 
instinct for change and versatility, they drift into the 
confusion of a studio filled with unfinished pictures, 
or a writer's sanctum strewn with literary efforts in 
all stages of incompleteness, with not a finished pro- 
duction among the lot. 

The proper corrective for this chaotic and often 
wasteful method of procedure is to intelligently admit 
that the chief peculiarity of the Gemini type is not 
only love of change, but positive need for diversity of 
occupation. In order to satisfy the legitimate de- 
mands of such a nature, let the day's work be divided 
into sections, entailing as much diversity in employ- 
ment as possible. At school Gemini children often 
greatly enjoy studying arithmetic one hour, then 
French the next hour, and music the third hour. Or 
they will gladly turn from a Greek lesson to a cook- 
ing class. They will work industriously and con- 
tinuously, provided they are not made to suffer mon- 
otony. They need recreation to a great extent. 
Indoor and out-door sports and exercises should be 
alternated in their case as frequently as possible. 









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48 The Significance of Birthdays 

Many people who are confirmed in this sign can 
appreciate church, lecture hall, concert room, theatre, 
social gathering, club, hotel and private residence; 
but any monotonous harping upon one string is 
detestable to them. They usually like to take in 
everything that is going. They are the very reverse 
of puritanical in their thoughts and feelings, and 
often shock Mrs. Grundy and the "unco' guid" by 
the apparent levity with which they are apt to treat 
even the most serious subjects. As writers, teachers 
and healers they have a wonderful faculty for 
reaching a great variety of persons, as they can 
readily adapt themselves to very opposite states of 
mind. Gemini people are more often sparkling and 
brilliant than profound; but as they are generally 
witty and originative, they afford much instruction, 
as well as amusement, when they are at their best. 

It is easy to see that the disorders to which such 
people are most likely to be subject are those of a 
distinctly nervous type. Consequently they cannot 
easily stand much worry or anxiety, and require a 
large amount of sleep. Ten hours out of the twenty- 
four may well be apportioned to sleep with persons 
of this temperament, if Mercury was rising at their 
time of birth. If Saturn was the ascendant planet, 
then eight hours may suffice. 

As we have given in the two preceding lessons the 
general aspects of the planets, and what they indi- 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 49 

cate, and we have no wish to be tautological, we 
will leave it to the reader at this time to make 
planetary applications in the light of the general out- 
lines suggested in those two lessons. 

Remember that the rising planet never changes, 
but it does modify and supplement the distinctive 
influence of the sign. 

And now a word on the physiological correspond- 
ence. As previously stated, Aries is the head and 
Taurus the neck of the Grand Man, and the func- 
tions of head and neck are decidedly distinct, though 
thoroughly co-operative. The one leads and the 
other follows. The position of Gemini, as shoulders, 
arms and hands, denotes capacity for attending to 
details and accomplishing much through manual 
effort. All Gemini people love to work with their 
hands, but it depends much upon their culture, re- 
finement and education as to the special form of 
manual occupation which is best adapted to them. 
The rougher type of Gemini people will be busily 
engaged in such handicraft as requires the display of 
comparatively little intelligence and scarcely any 
artistic development; while those on a higher plane 
will execute beautiful work, many in this sign being 
exceedingly accomplished painters, sculptors and 
performers on musical instruments. As it is possible 
for two hands to be arrayed against each other, 
though it is orderly and natural for them to work 



50 The Significance of Birthdays 

perfectly together, Gemini people must seek before 
all things to become houses united within themselves ; 
and when they are so, they are usefully executive in 
high degree. 



^y 






i i 



; 












In dealing with this, the most paradoxical of the 
twelve signs, we shall endeavor to elucidate, as far as 
possible, the seeming discrepancies in character and 
conduct, which are so obviously in evidence among 
people whose place is to be found in this province 
of the Zodiac. The period of Cancer is from about 
June 2 1 to July 2 1 , when Leo commences his reign. 
The time of the summer solstice is the time when the 
days begin to shorten and the nights to lengthen, 
just as the winter solstice occurs when the nights 
begin to shorten and the days to lengthen. It has 
been well said many times that man's progress, like 
that of the planets, is always a spiral pathway, not 
straight forward without breaks or interruptions 
Nature brings us alternating seasons of heat and cold, 
moist and dry, light and dark, seed sowing and 
harvesting; and as we live in harmony with nature 
all about us declaring that all is good, and that no 
experience bodes evil; we grow to love the changing 
seasons and to rejoice in what seems to be a bacl$- 



52 The Significance of Birthdays 

ward, while it is in reality a forward, move. 

Cancer, to our way of thinking, stands for the 
conservative element in the world, for slow motion, 
but always sure, though slow. Cancer people are, for 
the most part, wedded to antiquities. They pay very 
high, often inordinate respect, to old families, be- 
cause they have a long pedigree and well defined 
family tree, without asking how meritorious the 
present members of such families may be. Cancer 
loves to put the question, "Who \ras your grand- 
father?" This tendency is certainly in many cases 
retrogressive, rather than progressive. At the same 
time, it must be acknowledged that Cancer is not 
alone in this characteristic. Virgo, too, shares with 
Cancer an exceeding veneration for "blue blood;" 
and we cannot deny that there is a certain advantage 
in good heredity. But we must remember that while 
all undesirable hereditary acquisitions can be thrown 
aside, and all harmful tendencies conquered, if we 
will but try ; we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that 
heredity has a place and does exert an influence, in 
shaping a disposition. Mental Science teaches the 
way out of all difficulties and dangers, but Mental 
Scientists are not, therefore, required to deny the 
existence of the disadvantageous conditions they suc- 
cessfully work to overcome. While the habit of re- 
trospection, which is a conspicuous trait of the Can- 
cer temperament, is far too often misused to serve 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 53 

the ends of a false and pessimistic philosophy, it is 
quite possible to so discipline and employ this tend- 
ency as to make it very useful in considering a history 
of all past triumphs and successes. And in this dis- 
cipline Cancer should score a glorious triumph indeed, 
for Cancer, the breast is essentially the sign and seat 
of the material, protecting, sympathetic love, and here 
lies Cancer's redemption from its bonds of custom and 
ancient traditions. When, in Cancer people, this in- 
tense love of children, of home, of the beautiful, is 
developed and broadened into the love of the whole 
human race, recognizing the true brotherhood of 
man; into the love of universal peace, from the be- 
lief that "the heart of the world is one"; when they 
turn from the love of the beautiful that leads them to 
deck their persons and their homes in purple and 
fine linen, to the love of the spirit clothed in the shin- 
ing garments of righteousness and the temple of the 
spirit made beautiful within ; then we find one of the 
most forceful characters for good in the whole Zo- 
diac. 

Thus, in Masonic Societies, in lodges of Odd Fel- 
lows, in labor unions and other great movements to- 
ward universal understanding, we find large numbers 
of these spiritually awakened Cancer people, looking 
toward a perfect expression of the higher life, mani- 
fested in physical betterment, and spiritual brother- 
hood. 



54 The Significance of Birthdays 

An exceeding fondness for display often charac- 
terizes the taste of undeveloped people in this sign 
and is largely due to their love of approbation, which 
is stronger than their self-esteem; and though 
these two qualities are often confounded, no two in 
the entire range of human faculties are farther apart, 
so far as the influence they exert is concerned, 
though we may find them near together on a phreno- 
logical chart. Self-esteem tends in the direction of 
fearless self-assertion. It is a leading trait of the 
most energetic and very boldest among pioneers who 
have espoused and are determined to champion a 
new cause, no matter how unpopular it may yet con- 
tinue to be. Approbativeness goes with a timid, 
shrinking, ultra-sensitive, and sometimes vain nature. 
Vanity and self-conceit are not the same, although 
these again are usually frequently confounded. Con- 
servative people are devout worshipers at Mrs. Grun- 
dy's most foolish shrine. They dread innovations 
for fear of being ridiculed or of not standing well 
with the world at large. They dote on candle, in- 
cense, rubrics and ancient usages, and mediaeval rites 
and customs are fascinating to them. 

Thus Cancer people are very useful as historians 
and archaeologists, and as they love to delve among 
ancient ruins and rummage through old book-cases, 
they certainly contribute a great deal to our stock of 
knowledge. 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 55 

Cancer is the sign of memory, as Aries is of 
ideality. The idealist is constitutionally given to 
looking ahead, while the memorist is ever looking 
backward. Memory alone is, in our judgment, a 
singularly overated faculty, and instead of trying 
to cultivate memory to excess, and always depending 
upon it, we should strive for penetrativeness, fore- 
sight and many other gifts and graces of which the 
worshipers of memory take little or no account. We 
think every experienced mental healer will bear us 
out in our statement that the injunction, "You must 
forget it," needs to be used far oftener in mental 
practice when one is conversing with a patient, than 
"You must be sure and not forget it." Cancer peo- 
ple have usually extremely retentive memories; and 
if they can only undertake to discipline these memo- 
ries, they can convert the cause of their chief failing 
to a means of real and steady growth. Remem- 
brances of victories are good, while all recollections 
of defeat are depressing. Memorial tablets must 
become so subservient to the will, that we can write 
upon them and efface from them whatsoever we 
choose. A good memory is not the ultima thule 
of human attainment; and a correct, precise verbal 
memory, which can recall every detail of past experi- 
ence at a moment's notice, is by no means so helpful 
as most people think, until it has been thoroughly 
disciplined and completely subdued to the awakened 



56 The Significance of Birthdays 

will. The remembrance of former greatness is often 
depressing, and leads to sighing over lost opportuni- 
ties, when strength is needed here iand now to buckle 
on the armor of resistance to fear and to leap for- 
ward, to conquer in the future. 

The Chinese Empire is in the sign Cancer. The 
Mongolian race is especially an example of the nature 
of the crab in the Zodiac. Confucius, great moralist 
and profound teacher of high ethics though he was, 
cannot be compared with Moses as a type of progress 
Moses was always urging the people to forget the 
flesh-pots of Egypt; not to loiter in the desert, but to 
march forward to an untried Canaan. Confucius 
was ever insisting upon veneration for ancestors and 
formal obedience to old customs. Etiquette plays an 
immense part in the Confucian system, and much of 
it has become senseless, cumbersome and in no way 
calculated to advance the interests of those who rig- 
orously observe it. 

Undeveloped Cancer people in any part of the 
world are too much given to pay court to mere ex- 
ternals. They are, as a rule, extremely conventional ; 
they love old books, old pantings, old china, old 
buildings, and every kind of ancient usage. A full- 
blooded thoroughbred Cancer person adores an- 
tiquity; is much given to ritual observances, no mat 
ter whether in church or home; thinks much and 
speaks frequently of established use and precedent, 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 57 

and is very fearful of kicking over the traces, and 
marching out into any field where Mrs. Grundy will 
not lead the way. In a very progressive family or 
community, such a person, because highly sensitive, 
will be considerably affected by the atmosphere of 
the place or circle in which he moves, and may, 
of the place or circle in which he moves, and may, 
therefore, become progressive through his surround- 
ings, casting aside the usual tendency to cling to what 
is old; to remember the pious ancestors' doctrine, to 
walk in their footsteps, exclaiming, "My grandfather 
was an excellent man, and what was good enough 
for him, is, and ought to be, good enough for me." 
As it is* the pleasing task of the philosopher to 
review, rather than to criticize; to explain, but not 
to condemn; a philosophic attitude toward Cancer 
persons compels us to respect their bias to a certain 
extent, while attempting all the time to help them to 
gain emancipation from the depressing thraldom to 
which they are often quite disposed to yield. Rheum- 
atism, congestion, constipation, defective circulation 
and a host of allied ailments, correspond exactly to 
fettered mental states; and all chronic ailments are 
aggravated by an intense idolatry of memory. The 
recollection of former days ; the tendency to live over 
again in past scenes, where boyhood or girlhood may 
have been spent; the disposition to regret the past 
and to encourage the belief that old days were better 



- 



58 The Significance of Birthdays 

than the present time; these and all similar mental 
tendencies are the foods upon which chronic ailments 
thrive and fatten. 

Cancer people frequently imagine they used to be 
much better off than they are now; and permit their 
minds to dwell upon insults and injuries, and 
though they are frequently anything but resent- 
ful in the violent sense, they labor under a sense of 
hurt or injury. Their feelings are easily wounded, 
and their troublesome memories do not let them for- 
get a past annoyance* 

In the education of Cancer children it is highly 
necessary to stimulate their interest in present day 
affairs, and to help them to realize the beauty of the 
natural objects all about them, and to appreciate the 
good time they are now enjoying. As the Cancer 
type of intellect is, unless diverted from its con- 
templation of the past, apt to be altogether too 
retrospective and gloomy, wise parents and teachers 
who are quick observers of the necessities of the 
children in their care will not fail to encourage, as 
far as possible, in young people of this type, all 
those out-door games and pleasant social gatherings 
which effectually counteract a tendency to moodiness 
and melancholy. 

Cancer people are usually highly conscientious. 
They have often a fastidious sense of rectitude which 
they carry to extremes, and which makes them mis- 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 59 

understood as well as causing offence, and often pain, 
to the people among whom they move. The word 
"thin-skinned" frequently applies to much persons, 
and so does the term "hyper-sensitive;" and it cannot 
be denied, and should not be overlooked, that the 
very people who suffer most from fancied insults 
themselves, are the readiest of all to quickly condemn 
their neighbors. 

An amusing aspect of Cancer is extreme parsimo- \ 
niousness, though this is not always a conspicuous 
feature on the material plane. A housekeeper of 
the Cancer type, who has no aspirations beyond 
housekeeping, is very apt to save scraps, candle ends, 
waste paper and all sorts of little things which may 
be converted into money. Cancer people are ex- 
deed they rejoice greatly in petty economies. This 
trait is not a fault, though if too greatly encouraged, 
it leads them to miserliness. 

On the intellectual or artistic plane of develop- 
ment, Cancer people may exhibit none of the small 
domestic economies we have referred to ; but the at- 
tributes of the sign are present with them in a ten- 
dency to conserve old books and pamphlets ; to save 
old letters; to dry flowers, and treasure keepsakes, 
or to accumulate musty pictures and revel in curios 
and antiquated knick-knacks. From this delineation 
the reader may be led to study how culture and edu- 
cation can best develop a type, which through its 



60 The Significance of Birthdays 

really intense and beautiful maternal nature can eas- 
ily be awakened to a wider view of life, and as all 
types are good, though all differ, we do not need to 
change, but only to improve and beautify what is al- 
ready present. Stirpiculture equally w r ith agriculture 
and horticulture does not attempt to change type, but 
only to improve species. Ethical culture must aim to 
do the same with humanity. The world needs con- . 
servatives as well as progressionists. Society needs his- 
torians, and those who can draw useful lessons from 
the past for present guidance. Therefore, though we 
"i^ave shown the shadowy background, as well as the 
beauteous foreground of a picture in this essay, our 
intention has been to be only analytical, and not in 
the least condemnatory. We believe fully in the 
equal divinity of the twelve signs of the Zodiac, as 
represented in human life ; and we are sure when the 
glowing imagery of the book of Revelation is under^ 
stood, we shall find in that mysterious Apocalypse a 
key to human nature, both synthetic and analytic. 

If Cancer people can make friends with those of 
the Leo type, or with those in Libra, or even with 
Aries, they will find their extreme tendencies happily 
modified, and they in turn will usefully moderate 
the reckless zeal and exuberant rashness of some 
whose temperaments are the very opposite of their 
own, for Cancer really advances, though its behav- 
ior sometimes makes it appear that it is retrograding. 






Vfee Jffifllr M>tt~"f*tf the ffcm 

As Leo, whose period is from about July 22, to 
August 22, has always been regarded as the heart of 
the macrocosm or archetypal man, we may take as an 
appropriate motto for our present lesson the well 
quotation from the book of Proverbs, "Keep the 
heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of 
life." As each sign has its specific character, and 
signs which follow each other are usually in direct 
contrast, we find that Leo people are as unlike those 
whose place is in Cancer as it is possible for two sets 
of individuals to be. Cancer is slow, conservative 
and apt to be selfish. Cancer people are usually giv- 
en to saving their strength and husbanding their en- 
ergy for fear of becoming exhausted. Cancer is 
called a watery sign, and is, therefore, apt to be 
coldly intellectual, fish-like, shell-fish like; and is it 
not curious to note when these words are placed in 
juxtaposition how singularly alike are selfish and 
shell-fish? Both words suggest retirement into one's 
own personal sphere, lack of communion and lack of 
sympathy with the world outside. Though when 
lifted to a higher plane the selfish or shell-fish (crab- 



62 The Significance of Birthdays 

like) character becomes only well protected, 
shielded from attacks of all kinds, through an un- 
usually perfect development of individual aura. So 
beautiful can the originally selfish, shut-in nature 
become as it grows benevolent, that at length it may 
be compared to a sweet moss-rose protected by a 
soft, velvety covering and having no need of thorns. 
Cancer people at their highest and best are retiring 
and given to a study of occult mysteries as becomes 
those whose province is the breast of the Grand 
Man. 

Leo people are forceful, energetic, impulsive, out- 
spoken, distributive, highly magnetic, lavish in the 
expenditure of their vitality, in all respects the very 
opposite of Cancer. Leo is called a fiery sign, and 
is, therefore, placed in the same triplicity with Aries 
and Sagittarius. 

We note often that Cancer people are great stud- 
ents, and by virtue of their studiousness they often 
impress the public through valuable literary 'efforts. 
Leo persons are individually attractive, and draw to 
themselves admiring throngs if they are in any public 
capacity. In this sign we find many effective presid 
ing officers, as well as natural orators, actors and 
others whose career necessitates public personal ap- 
peal to the multitude. Every one who ever heard 
and saw Henry Ward Beecher knows how much 
of his popularity was due to his personality. He was 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 63 

a loving, lovable man. He had a great, warm, ten- 
der heart, running over with affection, in consequence 
of which, people ran to him not only to listen to his 
words, but to bask in the sunshine of his presence. 
Emerson said and wrote many more wonderful 
things than did Beecher; but Emerson's popularity 
is still growing among intellectual people, and he 
was not highly esteemed by the masses while on 
earth. His nature and style might be called Platonic 
and academic, while Beecher's was intensely popu- 
lar. And so it was to a large degree with Phillips 
Brooks. Many preachers have delivered sermons, 
which, when published, were quite as full of thought, 
and quite as rich in beauty of illustration; yet the 
multitude was not drawn to the man as crowds were 
drawn to Brooks and Beecher. 

Then consider Ingersoll, who could always crowd 
a spacious theatre to hear a lecture at theatre prices, 
from gallery to orchestra chairs. Ingersoll did not 
say, as. a rule, any very remarkable things. His lec- 
tures on Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Paine were 
brilliant and historical ; but his Ghosts, Skulls, Mis- 
takes of Moses, Gods, and many others, contain 
nothing particularly enlightening. Still the same 
people went to hear the same lecture time after time 
because Ingersoll delivered it. Were it only the 
subject matter they were after, they would be 
equally content if they could buy the pamphlet and 



64 The Significance of Birthdays 

read it or hear it read to them at home. 

When in ancient Greece oratory was at its height, 
and poets read their own poems to enamored audi- 
ences, composed of the wealthiest and most cultured 
citizens of Athens and distinguished visitors from far 
and near, the Leo type of humanity was very much 
esteemed and very much in evidence. Leo people 
are remarkably successful healers when they see 
their patients, talk with them and touch them. They 
usually believe a great deal in personal influence and 
in the virtue of the magnetic touch, which they are 
well able to bestow. We all know men and women 
whose personal influence is very much greater than 
simply what they say. A Cancer person may do all his 
business successfully through the postoffice, but Leo 
people need to be seen* as well as heard from to be 
appreciated; unless, indeed, they have attained the 
unusual height of those exalted metaphysicians, who 
have so far conquered the limitations of the geo- 
graphical, that they can send their rich, warm, pow- 
erful thoughts skimming over unseen wires and ac- 
complish results without any reference to place of 
body. 

The average Leo person is good looking, even 
commanding in appearance, and generally dresses 
well, not foolishly following prevailing fashions; but 
gratifying personal taste in the matter, and expressing 
love of beauty in externals, as correspondences to 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 65 

thoughts within. There is as much difference be- 
tween the typical Leo and the typical Cancer cast 
of mind and general appearance as we have seen 
exhibited by Cardinal Manning (Cancer) and Col. 
Ingersoll (Leo) . We do not mean that Cancer peo- 
ple are necessarily theologians, or that Leo people 
are usually agnostics; but these two very widely 
known men exhibit the extremes of tw r o opposite 
types. Cardinal Manning was attracted to antiquity, 
tradition, ceremony, authority and all that tends to 
conserve an ancient and illustrious regime. In per- 
son he was spare and in mode of life ascetic. 
Ingersoll, on the other hand, was ready to kick over 
all traces and revel in the exuberance of an almost 
boundless vitality. Manning's power lay almost en- 
tirely in his thoughts ; Ingersoll's strength lay largely 
in his personal magnetism. Even his bitterest oppon- 
ents can hardly deny that he had a warm, loving 
heart and was an excellent friend, husband, father 
and neighbor. 

Leo is so prone to act from the centres of emotion, 
that the heart controls everything with Leo people; 
and it was Ingersoll's heart more than his head that 
revolted against the barbarous doctrines of old Cal- 
vinism. "All the world loves a lover'* is a good old 
saying in which there is a great deal of truth. Why 
should the world love the lover but because love is 
so distributive that it makes itself felt wherever it 



66 The Significance of Birthdays 

exists? Everybody likes to love some one and to be 
loved in return by somebody; but Leo people are 
especially dependent upon affection, and cannot exist 
without it. They generally get a good deal of affec- 
tion showered upon them, because, being so full of it 
and so free with it, they become powerful magnets 
to attract it. 

Leo children are warm, impulsive and effusive. 
They easily make friends and are generally great 
favorites at school. They are often masterful and 
inclined to be dictatorial, but they generally get their 
own way without much effort because of their pleas- 
ant manners, genial disposition and prepossessing 
appearance. The Leo child is often the beauty and 
generally the pet of the family. In business, people 
in this sign are quickly promoted. They receive and 
grant favors readily and often get on in life in con- 
sequence of their exceeding popularity. They can 
be terrible in anger if greatly aroused; but like large, 
fine dogs they are, as a rule, good natured and even 
tempered; though high-spirited. Self esteem is large 
with them, and they are not deficient in approbative- 
ness. Mirthfulness is also often a prominent organ in 
their brains. They are not always very industrious, 
often loving pleasure and ease and being willing to 
receive attention and let others wait upon them. They 
are so clearly designed by nature to rule rather than 
to be ruled, that any attempt to quell their ardent 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 67 

impulses by coercive restraint is resented forcibly by 
them. We find much will in this sign, as will and 
love always go together. A very loveful person 
must be willful, for lovefulness and willfulness are 
very near of kin. The former word is rarely used, 
and the latter is mercilessly abused and misapplied; 
but when both these two good words are used in 
their true sense they are found to be very nearly 
synonymous. All will, desire, affection, love, must 
spring from that element in our nature which directly 
acts upon the heart. All emotions act first through 
the brain, and thence upon the part of the body 
which directly corresponds to that particular section 
of the brain acted upon. In a Leo head, amativeness 
and philoprogenitiveness are usually full, so that 
love of home and family and of children in general 
will be characteristic. Leo people seldom like to 
live alone and they rarely succeed in business by 
themselves. They are frequently very generous and 
sublimely philanthropic, taking real delight in help- 
ing and healing the distressed. As healers they are 
"Al." No sign contains so many natural healers 
as Leo, which produces a wealth of people, who, 
almost from their cradles, benefit the sick and cheer 
the sad by their simple presence. 

Leo people when subject to maladies through 
lack of knowing how to govern their propensities 
aright, are inclined to palpitation of the heart, 



68 , The Significance of Birthdays 

obesity, shortness of breath and the difficulties com- 
mon to persons of generous build and full habit. 
Alimentiveness is often large with them, so they 
enjoy the pleasures of the table and are sometimes 
given to undue conviviality. 

In this sign will be found a great many popular 
club men, social leaders of both sexes, and women 
w r ho get up fairs, bazaars and ail sorts of entertain- 
ments for charity. Such people are friends to 
cooking schools, soup kitchens and all places where 
"Lady Bountiful' 9 finds a field for the exercise of 
her generosity. The Leo type is often indiscrim- 
inate; it is apt to hate red tape, and it does not 
approve of associated charities and systematized 
efforts which are often cold and perfunctory in the 
name of the warmest of the graces. Impulse is so 
strong in Leo and frequently so kind and generous 
that official proceedings and the slow movement of 
large organizations are spurned with contempt as 
well as disrelish. 

On the whole this sign may fairly be styled the 
warmest, handsomest and most lavish of the twelve. 
It holds many of the greatest artists and most suc- 
cessful doctors of all schools. Heartiness is the 
right word to use when summing up its most con- 



spicuous evidences. 






J7*C-K-5*>/K 






Virgo, whose period is from about August 22 to 
September 23, is the solar plexus or vital centre of 
the Grand Man, and includes the womb or matrix 
of the social organism. As Leo (the heart) is 
warm, impulsive, gushing, exuberant, magnetic, 
rejoicing in the fullest consciousness of opulent 
strength, given to free distribution of energy, and in 
every way disposed to impart knowledge, vitality 
and whatever else is communicable, Virgo is inclined 
to be motherly, conserving force for the upbuilding 
of offspring. Leo stands for love, will, desire, and 
all that pertains to the affections. Virgo is the 
symbol of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and 
generally displays its chief characteristic in a natural 
instinctive perception or discernment. 

Wisdom in the book of Proverbs, and elsewhere 
in and out of the Bible, is spoken of as feminine. 
Wisdom is said to build her house on seven pillars 
(vide Prov. ix, I). Sophia (wisdom) is a Greek 
noun of feminine gender; so, when, in the eighth 



70 The Significance of Birthdays 

chapter of Proverbs, she is said to have been with 
Him from the beginning, the masculine element 
there referred to is the root of will, the true word 
or logos which, jointly with understanding, creates 
all things and brings all things to pass. 

When the ancient Egyptians placed the emblem 
of the Sphinx in the vicinity of the Great Pyramid 
at Gizeh and many lesser pyramids, they unques- 
tionably intended to convey the idea of Leo-Virgo, 
which is the union of will and understanding. 

Children born on the cusp, between August 20 
and 23, are often found to be, by natural tendency, 
remarkably well balanced. They have, as a rule, 
a very fine perception of how to adjust and balance 
to a nicety. They are not apt to be carried away 
by their affectional impulses, as many Leo people 
are, nor are they so very calculating and intellectual 
as many who are fully in Virgo. 

Virgo is a constructive, home-making sign, and 
though it is said to belong to the earthly triplicity, 
this does not mean that it conduces to sensuality, 
but rather that its tendency is toward perfect ultima- 
tion, or a complete externaiization of thought. In 
Virgo we find many seers and prophets. A large 
proportion of those gifted with clairvoyance, or 
second sight, are found in this department of the 
maximus homo; and it may be fairly stated that 
of all the signs this is the one which gives evidence 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 71 

of the greatest recuperative power. The typical 
Virgo person is not seemingly very robust, is not 
muscular in large degree, and not generally particu- 
larly impressive on first acquaintance; but there is 
an immense fund of reserve energy stored up in the 
secret recesses of such a nature. 

The contrast presented between Leo and Virgo 
is particularly marked. Leo wins friends and holds 
them by magnetic charm and personal attractive- 
ness. Virgo, on the other hand, wins its way by 
appealing to the understanding. Leo is the sign 
of a very large percentage of magnetic healers and 
persons who are eminently successful in any capacity 
where the personal equation is of large account. 
Virgo is the sign of many deep philosophers and 
reasoners, and is the province of a great array of 
naturally endowed teachers of all descriptions. 

A very conspicuous example of Virgo was 
Goethe, the world-renowned poet and philosopher, 
the friend of Schiller, from whom, however, he 
widely differed in many important particulars. 
Goethe is one of the subtlest and most analytical of 
modern writers, and nowhere does he display his 
Virgo qualities more than in his delineations of 
Faust and Mephistopheles. 

All great creative artists deal with their own ex- 
periences and record their individual victories and 
temptations in what they write or print or sculpture 



72 The Significance of Birthdays 

or sing; but though this is a universal fact, there are 
but few, comparatively, who can dissect themselves 
as clearly as they can read others. To Virgo people 
more than to any others belongs the power of self- 
comprehension. Synthesis characterizes Leo; an- 
alysis, Virgo. Leo people take a general view of 
things. They are satisfied, as a rule, with what 
pleases or delights them. Virgo is never contented 
without looking deeply into the whys and where- 
fores, tracing causes to effects and effects to causes. 
Mental and moral dissection is very gratifying to 
the distinct Virgo type, of whom it may be said, 
that never are its representatives so happy or so con- 
genially employed as when they are picking some- 
thing to pieces, with a view to understanding its 
mechanism and the mainspring of its movement. 

In this sign there are many chemists and some 
alchemists; many who are given to occult studies, 
and who succeed in psychological review; and 
though occasionally there may be outbursts of 
temper, the Virgo person is rarely a fighter, as he 
is too intellectual to desire anything short of arbitra- 
tion in place of warfare. 

In the work of teaching and healing we find but 
few, as a rule, who are eminently successful in 
both public and private lines of work, and still fewer 
who blend with approximate perfectness the dispo- 
sition to state principles clearly and generally, with 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 73 

that warm affectionate sympathy which draws one 
to another, as we are attracted to a cheery fire on 
a cold night. While Leo people draw others to 
themselves, and make many w r arm personal friends 
who are attached to their personalities, Virgo draws 
to what is taught, to the principles set forth, rather 
than to the one who sets them forth. 

A great many distinguished casuists and many 
highly successful lawyers are in Virgo; and among 
able barristers it is well known that eloquence is 
common. For lucidity of statement, purity of dic- 
tion, grammatical accuracy, correct spelling, and 
many other graces of this sort, Virgo bears the palm; 
and it is also a sign in which we find much artistic 
ability and great love of order and beauty. 

The feminine qualities of Virgo are shown in a 
disposition to retain, mature and reproduce in new 
forms whatever intelligence has been received. 
Virgo people are not, as a rule, very swift in motion, 
nor are they particularly industrious on the outward 
plane; but as their minds are usually active, they 
are by no means idle. 

In this sign there is often found a great apprecia- 
tion of the psychic realm. Virgo people are not, as 
a class, superstitious, nor are they very pious; they 
incline to idealistic rationalism. All that is trans- 
cendental and aesthetic appeals to them; they are 
fond of music and ceremonial, and are disposed to 



74 The Significance of Birthdays 

dwell much in the realm of symbols and metaphors ; 
but their regard for forms is not superficial, as they 
see through them to the things signified. 

Many people in Virgo make excellent debaters, 
and they are very difficult to vanquish in argument, 
as they are exceptionally logical, and never feel 
themselves finally defeated. Their great character- 
istic is the ability to rise like india-rubber, so that 
momentary defeats, however crushing, do not dis- 
hearten them. After the greatest overthrow they are 
soon ready to start afresh and commence a new 
work with all the ardor of an original enthusiasm. 

Persistency belongs to this sign and, practically, 
regardlessness of time. If a true Virgo person loses 
health, apparently he soon recovers it; and if he 
loses one fortune, he makes another. 

Virgo presents the paradox of strength within and 
fragility without, and of deep stores of knowledge 
hidden below an appearance of indifference and, 
possibly, ignorance. Its people, though very capable 
of endurance, are extremely sensitive, little things 
highly pleasing or greatly annoying them; and while 
they seem much influenced by trivial occurrences, 
the fact is that they are so introspective and analy- 
tical, that they follow a small clue and see the 
greatness of the admission which must logically be 
made if the entering wedge is granted. 

Virgo people are extremely critical of themselves 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 75 

as well as of others ; whenever they are good-natured 
and well-disposed, they make first-rate book re- 
viewers and synoptical reporters. Having a keen 
eye to incident and a rare faculty for following a 
slight hint to a remote conclusion, they make good 
counselors and advisers, and are usually much 
pleased to be made the recipients of confidences, 
which they seldom betray. 

There is a fine, though peculiar, sense of honor 
about Virgo people. They have often very little 
regard for the mere feelings of the people about 
them; and if they discover disagreeable facts, they 
may make unpleasant use of them, as they are often 
fond of gossip and are very inquisitive; but tell 
them in confidence something you wish kept secret, 
and they will sacredly respect your trust, and con- 
tinue loyal to their word, which is truly their bond. 

Such people are very fond of attention paid to 
their attainments. They do not value personal ser- 
vices or affectionate attentions very highly, but they 
insist upon being treated with respect. If you wish 
to make a real friend of a Virgo person, the best 
way to do it is to pay court to his intelligence, as 
pride of intellect is really the besetting weakness, 
and, at the same time, a characteristic strength of 
those in this sign. Conscientiousness is prominent 
in Virgo, and so is self-esteem. Love of personal 
freedom is also conspicuous, and the sense of in* 



76 The Significance of Birthdays 

dividual rights and liberties is frequently so strong 
that unintentional trespass upon private ground is 
often sharply resented. 

People in this section of the Zodiac usually enjoy 
a sense of private property in personal belongings. 
They are generally highly egoistic, though they may 
be altruistic also; but they are disposed to draw a 
sharp line between mine and thine. It is often diffi- 
cult for such persons to hold subordinate positions. 
They love to lead, but when they are in the ruler's 
seat they are not despotic. Though they adore their ( 
own way, and think it better than any one's else, 
they are extremely tolerant of other people's idiosyn- 
crasies, provided they are permitted to enjoy their 
own in peace, and they are, as a rule, peaceful folk. 

Leo exhibits the canine qualities in the animal 
world. Virgo is distinctly feline. Having said this, 
we will observe that both the dog and cat were 
divine emblems in Egypt. The dog, as a hunter 
and protector, was esteemed and venerated as an 
embodiment of affection and fidelity; while all ani- 
mals of the cat species were regarded as emblems 
of the clairvoyant faculty, which the feline race dis- 
plays in its ability to see in the dark, through a dis- 
tinctive elongation of the pupil of the eye. 

The occupations best adapted to Virgo people are 
invariably those which require tact, skill and the 
exercise of the logical faculty. Sedentary pursuits 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 77 

are often favorable, particularly work of a literary 
character. The distinctly Virgo type of mind may 
be compared to very fruitful earth, where seeds 
quickly germinate and results multiply. Virgo 
women are often mothers of large families, and they 
bear and rear children with much greater ease than 
those in some other signs. When the development 
of a Virgo person is intensely intellectual, and the 
sense nature is quite subordinate, we witness great 
fruitfulness on the mental plane. The children of 
the intellect multiply in that case, and in many in- 
stances a single seed idea dropped into the fruitful 
soil of a Virgo mind will spring up and bear a 
surprisingly abundant harvest of results. 

Virgo people have usually very tenacious mem- 
ories and the smallest details rarely escape them. 
They are vividly impressed oftentimes by much that 
most people would allow to entirely escape them; 
and while this regard for details often looks like 
evidence of a mind bent on trifles, it is not in reality 
so, but when rightly understood betokens ability to 
trace analogies between things great and small, 
inward and outward. Swedenborg's doctrine of 
correspondences can probably be more readily 
understood by representatives of this sign than by 
those of any other, it being their disposition, and a 
favorite study and pastime with them, to trace out 
curious analogies and to follow a suggestive hint to 



78 The Significance of Birthdays 

its uttermost conclusion. Henry Wood's system of 
"Ideal Suggestion through Mental Photography," 
would be likely to appeal strongly to persons in this 
sign, as they like to see everything clearly mapped 
out before them, and are vigorous exponents of the 
doctrine of associated ideas and of mental suggestion. 
Virgo, in fine, is a sensitive, psychic, motherly 
sign, and though in the earthy trigon is not at all 
given to coarseness or gross materiality. "Let us 
hear the conclusion of the matter," may be a favorite 
text with this type of individual, who loves nothing so 
well as to follow tirelessly a proposition to its ulti- 
mate. In the productions of the masterly mind of 
Goethe we see revealed the very soul of Virgo. 



- 



Wqt Palatum 

The number seven, always regarded as highly 
important and significant by reason of its perpetual 
recurrence in nature, was, by the wise men of old, 
regarded truly as the harmonic of twelve. Seven, 
when applied to anything in Kabalistic works, 
always designates perfection of quality, while 
twelve denotes fullness of numerical representation. 
The seven colors of the rainbow, seven notes in the 
musical scale, seven days in the week, etc., may all 
be regarded as nature's testimony to the value of 
numbers. All life is expressed in geometrical ratio, 
and without mathematics there can be no scientific 
achievement. When the Europeans of the middle 
ages, imbued with Ptolemy's absurd errors concern- 
ing astronomy, persecuted Galileo and Copernicus, 
because of their blind and stupid belief that there 
were only seven planets in the universe, they did but 
instance a case of truth overlaid with errors; for — 
though these ignorant people knew it not — they had 
derived their doctrine of the music of the spheres 



80 The Significance of Birthdays 

from the profoundest scholars and closest reasoners 
of antiquity; men and women so enlightened that 
they could build the great Egyptian pyramid, and 
many other marvellous structures on strictly 
geometric lines, which to-day excite the reverent 
amaze of many of the most distinguished scholars 
of the modern world. 

The seventh sign of the Zodiac is the sign of 
judgment. Therefore, wherever original pictures of 
the correct idea of judgment, entertained by the 
truly illumined are to be found, a female figure is 
represented balancing the scales, she herself blind- 
folded. The woman is the equinoctial virgin 
(Virgo) ; the scales she holds are Libra, the sign 
which immediately follows in the Zodiacal pro- 
cession. 

We have called attention in a previous essay to 
the secret of the Sphinx (Leo- Virgo), and alluded 
in passing to the necessity for blending the masculine 
qualities of Lep, the heart of the archetypal man, 
with the feminine attributes of Virgo, the solar 
plexus. Leo being Will, and Virgo, Understanding ; 
Leo being the seat of emotion, and Virgo, of intui- 
tion, it logically follows that when Libra is attained 
the day of judgment is at hand; for then are we in 
condition to judge righteously, i. e., equitably. 
Unfortunately for the ready progress of correct 
ideas, words are used again and again in a stulti- 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 81 

fying sense, and in no instance does our language 
suffer more from incorrect usage than in the nu- 
merous places where justice is technically substituted 
for equity. This radical mistake in phraseology is 
as fundamental as the sociological falsehood implied 
in treating of man as though woman were of little or 
no account; while humanity and mankind ait words 
which signify men and women equally. The Latin 
word justitia is placed under the portrait or statue of 
the woman holding the scales. This should be 
erased and equitas substituted. Justice may be fairly 
defined as due regard for the interests of society as 
a whole. Mercy pleads that clemency be shown to 
the individual. The two great reformatory objects 
of well directed corrective measures in lieu of bar- 
barous punishment are very generally conceded to 
be the protection of society and the reformation of 
the wrong doer. Justice insists upon the former; 
mercy, upon the latter. Equity points the way to 
the realization of both these highly desirable and 
greatly needed ends, the combined result of both 
being the actual improvement of society. Justice 
and mercy are bride and bridegroom. One never 
appears in council without the other; and it will not 
be until they invariably appear together, that the 
human race will so understand itself as to frame and 
execute laws for the preservation of order, and the 
increase of happiness and general prosperity. 



82 The Significance of Birthdays 

We meet sometimes with people who seem 
endowed from birth with the happy faculty of being 
able to see a subject on both sides. Men like the 
justly revered James Freeman Clarke, author of 
"Ten Great Religions," and many other admirable 
w r orks, was, in our judgment, a good illustration of 
the Libra character, which is not ardent and impul- 
sive like Leo, nor conservative like Cancer, but given 
to weighing, measuring, balancing, comparing. A 
study of comparative religion would be most agree- 
able to such a type of mind, because it would not 
partake of the qualities of the zealot or rash devotee, 
but would delight in contrasting one system with 
another to discover the good in all. We do not say 
that such minds have no preference or strong attach- 
ments to any special form of faith. They may, like 
Dr. Clarke, esteem a liberal kind of Christianity far 
superior to any other religious system on earth; but 
if they do, their conception of the system they 
espouse and defend will be so broad and eclectic 
that it will be very nearly universal religion, and 
will always be a system that lays more stress on 
noble character than on theological tenets of belief. 

Leo is the sign of martyrs; Virgo, of deep, intui- 
tive philosophers, while Libra gives birth to people 
who are called in "Psycopathy" by Cora L. V. 
Richmond, social solvents. 

However great Shakespeare may have been in 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 83 

his ability to read character and interpret human 
nature to itself, in "The Merchant of Venice" he 
entirely fails to introduce a single character whose 
ethical ideas are satisfactory. It may be urged that 
he was holding the mirror to the times and reflecting 
the state of prevailing sentiment in Europe in the 
middle ages. Be that so, you have thereby ac- 
counted for the play; but you have not proved to us 
that its author had grasped the true solution of a 
momentous problem vitally affecting legislation. 
Shylock is just, but not merciful. Portia is merciful, 
but not just; and not a single character in the whole 
drama is equitable. Shylock was harsh and ungen- 
erous, but those who opposed him were unfair. We 
need a playwright to-day who will give us a drama 
in which equity is exhibited in so unmistakable a 
manner that no one can leave the theatre without 
feeling that he has learned a moral lesson he will 
never forget, and whoever does this satisfactorily 
will doubtless be a characteristic Libra man or 
woman. 

Libra people are reconcilers and peace-makers by 
natural disposition. They are fine, dispassionate 
reasoners, excellent in debate, but by no means 
given to contentious arguing. Never argue, but 
always reason a matter out, is good practical advice 
for everybody. Head and hsart have equal rights, 
entitled to mutual respect and courteous consider- 



84 The Significance of Birthdays 

ation. Only when we deal with questions from the 
intellectual and emotional standpoint alike are we 
in the way to an amiable settlement of the many 
questions which continually press their claims upon 
us. 

Libra is the sign of many of the best jurists the 
world has ever seen; and when lawyers of the 
highest type are found, we often discover when we 
learn their birth days that they were born some- 
where between September 23, and October 22, 
which is Libra's period. Conciliation and arbitra- 
tion are words very full of meaning and very accept- 
able in the ears of people who are confirmed in this 
sign, and it may fairly be added that they are, as a 
rule, very unwilling to believe ill of their neighbors. 
They do not object to talk about people, but they 
are not given to speaking against others. They may 
be very talkative, and have no dislike for friendly 
gossip, but malicious misrepresentation they abhor; 
and they are generally quite willing, even in cases 
which closely concern themselves, to confess that 
there are both faults and merits on either side. Such 
people can always be reached by rational appeal. 
They do not wish to quarrel or to continue at enmity ; 
and though they may sometimes be disposed to go 
to law, they enter suit for the purpose of arriving at 
an equitable decision ; not out of spite or with any 
unkind or malicious intent. 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 85 

In social life, in religion and in politics, Libra is 
often said to be "on the fence" in an attitude of 
impartial observation. The leading feature of this 
sign is its diplomatic and non-committal character. 
It exhibits great tact, makes many friends and recon- 
ciles the estranged, as well as bringing together in 
the embrace of solid friendship people who had pre- 
viously stood aloof from each other. 

In an old Kabalistic representation of Ezekiel's 
Wheel, Libra is placed in the central position, 
marking the turning point or place of juncture 
between the ascending Macrocosmos and the de- 
scending Microcosmos. This is a somewhat am- 
bitious attempt to illustrate involution and evolution 
by means of. a diagram. The six signs preceding 
Libra; viz., Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo 
and Virgo, are placed in the upper hemisphere ; and 
the remaining five following Libra; viz., Scorpio, 
Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces, in the 
lower hemisphere or nether world. 

Libra comes in with the autumnal equinox and is 
the sign of harvest, of the ingathering of the fruits 
of the earth. Thus in every sense does it denote 
the judge who comes to separate the kernel from the 
husk, and the wheat from the tares. 

If Christians in common with all other bodies of 
religionists, will but faithfully face their own 
ecclesiastical calendar and fearlessly read its inner 



86 The Significance of Birthdays 

meaning, they will find therein a key to the 
sublimest and most stupendous mysteries of the 
universe, as they directly affect human life; and in 
this discovery they can gain knowledge of the 
true secrets of disguised alchemy. The philosopher's 
stone and the elixir of life would be in their pos- 
session. But forever let it be understood that the 
true Rosicrucians never sought to discover in the 
outward, but only and ever in the inward realm the 
key to the vast results they were seeking to accom- 
plish. 

In the most external ways of life the character- 
istics of Libra manifest themselves amiably and use- 
fully, in full accord with the deepest spiritual import 
of the sign, when its innermost significance is 
acknowledged. Many excellent chemists are good 
examples of Libra, and the best analytical chem- 
ists are the finest readers of character. At any rate 
they have ability to dissect character if they give 
themselves at all to the work. The most charming 
social office of Libra is often performed at a dinner 
party, or at any festive gathering where people have 
been called together, who are not on friendly terms 
in private life. An intelligent host or hostess, who 
reads character well, or who is versed in the Zodiac 
as represented in humanity, can often get a Libra 
person to render a genuine service in the following 
manner : Miss Wratte and Miss Mousse have had 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 87 

a falling out. They will not speak to each other, 
or even how in passing on the street; and had the 
one known that Mrs. Katt had invited the other to 
her party, neither would have accepted the invita- 
tion. As it is they have met and glowered at each 
other in the drawing room before going in to dinner. 
Mrs. Katt, a very penetrative woman, has pur- 
posely invited the Misses Wratfe aad Mousse, and 
also a mutual friend— one they all like, esteem and 
are glad to meet, Mr. Balance; and he it is whose 
seat at the table is between the two ladies who regard 
each other so contemptuously. Mr. Balance, a fine 
Libra gentleman, mutual friend and entertaining 
conversationalist, easily succeeds in interesting both 
ladies; and as he sits between them and engages the 
attention of both, and they both agree with him and 
respect his opinions, no sooner are they in the draw- 
ing room again after dinner, than they begin talking 
to each other quite affably, and wondering secretly 
why they ever so magnified estranging trifles and 
regarded each other with such unfriendly eyes. 

Among well-known people who are in Libra, 
and whose life-work can be popularly estimated, 
we may mention President Hayes, who certainly 
made many friends and left an excellent record 
behind him. Sarah Bernhardt is also in Libra, and 
so is Mrs. Besant, two public women of whom the 
newspapers frequently speak, and to whom the 



88 The Significance of Birthdays 

multitude will flock, though for very different 
reasons oftentimes. Both these women have had 
diverse experiences, they have played many parts, 
sustained different roles and acquitted themselves 
wonderfully well in the characters they have as- 
sumed. Mrs. Besant has lived a self-denying, 
philanthropic life very largely, and through it all 
she has displayed an equable temper, never rushing 
to violent extremes or indulging in coarse invective. 
Mrs. Besant's reason for leaving the English church 
in which her husband was a clergyman, was that its 
ministers did not, and would not if they could, satisfy 
her eager questioning intellect. In. all her addresses 
on the labor question she was temperate and just; 
socialistic, but never anarchistic in her tendencies; 
and her scheme of socialism was ever to level up, 
not to level down. Her acceptance and advocacy of 
Theosophy was based entirely on its appeal to her 
sense of equity; and it may be here remarked that 
many Libra people take very kindly to the doctrines 
of Karma and reincarnation. There is much that 
fascinates them in the elaborate metaphysical systems 
of India, which seek to explain the working of 
perfect equity in the experiences of every individual ; 
and as Libra people are, as a rule, close reasoners 
and patient workers — and, if need be, waiters — they 
are not so averse to the extremest application of the 
theory of evolution, as are most of those who repre- 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 89 

sent the more impulsive and hasty signs. Sarah 
Bernhardt has achieved truly marvellous success on 
the stage largely through her continuous study of 
her parts. Gifted by nature with rare histrionic 
ability, she has persistently cultivated and supple- 
mented her natural skill by the closest attention to 
every detail of her art. Though she can be fiery, 
she is in many respects a reconciler, and has rare 
ability to play many parts well because of her 
striking ability to look on both sides of any character 
she essays to interpret. 

It will usually be found that Libra people are 
well fitted for influential posts or positions of trust. 
They make good overseers, choir masters, band 
conductors, stage managers, bailiffs, stewards and 
housekeepers; and when they are highly developed 
intellectually they make excellent professors in 
universities. Libra is without doubt the judge's 
seat; and while every human being can attain to 
equity, those who are in Libra are in a sense "to 
the manor born." 

We will here remark that in all we have advanced 
concerning this and other signs, we do not wish to be 
understood to say that all persons born at a certain 
time of the year do now exhibit all such signs as we 
have delinerated; but we decidedly hold that our 
generalizations concerning their aptitude are very 
nearly accurate. 



^t ?K$fyify #%tt— $wtpxa f 

This sign, the period of which extends rrom about 
October 22 to November 22, is one of those mysteri- 
ous enigmatical divisions of the Zodiac, which, by 
their very mysteriousness and inexplicability from 
the ordinary standpoint, have given rise to very 
malodorous stories concerning their malefic or 
malignant influence. 

Scorpio is the place of nativity of three very 
remarkable characters in modern history, Marie 
Antoinette, General von Moltke and President Gar- 
field. Scorpio seems to be the seat of tragedies, and 
those who are within its embrace are often the subject 
of the most singular and unlooked for experiences. 
But it is with the true characteristics and natural 
bearings or tendencies of the sign in general that we 
seekers specially to deal. In our progressive march 
through the twelve celestial houses, w T e discover as 
we advance from station to station on our journey 
that marked contrasts greet us at every turn. Each 
sign is sandwiched between two signs very unlike 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 9 1 

itself, and this surely applies to Scorpio, whose place 
is between Libra and Sagittarius. 

A scorpion with its sting is not a delightful crea- 
ture to contemplate, and from the title of this sign 
we might well expect only what is both disagreeable 
and dangerous. But on further investigation we 
may find ourselves happily disappointed ; for though 
Scorpio (or Draco) is the veritable old serpent or 
dragon mentioned in the Apocalypse, and the cause 
of unknown terror to the superstitious in eastern 
countries from time immemorial, the very devil 
should receive justice at our hands, and this boon 
may be called in some sense a vindication of the 
character of his satanic majesty. Scorpio is satan, 
and it is with the satanic character we have now to 
deal. Satan as mentioned in the book of Job was 
not a bad character by any means, according to the 
conception of the writer of that very ancient poem. 
The accusing angel was a rightful administrator in 
the heavenly court of equity; and though it was his 
disagreeable duty to point out errors, and bring even 
the most secret motives of mankind to judgment, 
the judgment eventually meted out was always just. 
The Scorpio man or woman is the accuser in society, 
and though the accusing angel is not apt to be 
particularly amiable, he may be thoroughly consci- 
entious. 

The Scorpio temperament is not usually a very 



92 The Significance of Birthdays 

happy one. It is too closely analytical and too se- 
verely critical to be what is generally called good 
natured; but it has its place, even though that 
place be the room of critic and censor, and though 
its influence often tends to cast a shadow, and its 
artistic office is to paint a back-ground, these things 
need to be done. Scorpio people when not very far 
unfolded spiritually are apt to be hypercritical and 
uncompromising in their denunciation of what they 
feel to be wrong. They may be just, but they cer- 
tainly are not merciful. Their nature is exacting, 
and they have the sentiment of the words, "Thou 
shalt not come forth until thou hast paid the utter- 
most farthing." 

We have all met people whose work in life 
seemed to be that of censors of everybody, them- 
selves included. Rigid to the point of painful inflex- 
ibility in all matters pertaining to conscience or 
morals, they have appointed themselves, and con- 
sider themselves divinely ordained to sit in judg- 
ment on everything and everybody. Such tempera- 
ments are usually quick, restless, wiry, energetic, 
fond of travel, and of darting quickly from place to 
place. Many born detectives are in this sign, and 
so are many people gifted with clairvoyant penetra- 
tion and what the Scotch call second sight. Quick- 
witted, quick of thought, speech and action, gener- 
ally small in stature and of high, nervous tension, 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 93 

these people find it difficult to serve as peacemakers. 
They usually stir up strife and often bring a tempest 
about their own ears without in any way desiring or 
expecting so violent an upheaval in their environ- 
ment. People who are thoroughly in the midst of 
this sign feel it to be their special duty to stir things 
up and call people to a sense of neglected obliga- 
tions. They have every characteristic of a shrill 
trumpet which calls to judgment and proclaims NOW 
is the judgment day. 

It would be easy enough to enumerate the disa- 
greeable features of this sign, but our aim is to point 
out its usefulness; therefore our brief is for the de- 
fendant rather than for the plaintiff. One who stirs 
up stagnant natures, and refuses to let apathy and in- 
dolence doze on undisturbed may be a very useful 
member of society, though he does prod the sleepers 
rather sharply oftentimes. 

Healers who are in this sign have a rousing mag- 
netic effect upon their patients, and are well adapted 
to break up chronic cases of rheumatism, gout and 
other long standing ailments, which represent fixity 
and obduracy of erroneous thought. 

In political affairs, the purification of the munici- 
palities may well follow in the train of a scorpion- 
like agitator, whose province it is to scent out what 
needs to be done, and how to do it. Scorpio stands 
for shrewdness, sagacity and penetration, and by 



94 The Significance of Birthdays 

no means suggests spitefulness or vindictiveness, 
except where judgment is perverted through 
unbridled and misdirected passion. As Libra de- 
notes the true philosopher who weighs and balances 
all things with impartial equity, Scorpio represents 
the judge who pronounces sentence favorably 01 
unfavorably as the case may be. There is a good 
aspect of Scorpio rarely noted in treatises upon the 
Zodiac, which seldom show forth the best features 
of the subject they discuss, and that is the signifi- 
cance of the eighth or octave note, which commences 
a new scale, and therefore denotes the first stage in 
a higher or regenerate life. 

The gospel tells us that after we have cast out the 
beam from our own eye we shall see clearly how to 
cast the mote out of a neighbor's eye, which obvi- 
ously means that when we are quite free from error, 
prejudice, blindness and all else that hinders mental 
and moral vision, we shall be in a condition to teach 
others to rectify even small wrongs in their own way 
of thinking, and the conduct which springs from it 
No more useful service can be rendered any one than 
to point out to him lovingly and unmistakably how 
he may correct his errors and live in future above the 
reach of the follies which aforetime marred his use- 
fulness. The best type of Scorpio disposition, then, 
is a singularly useful type ; for with remarkably keen 
and penetrative incisiveness, people of this stamp are 



Oar Place in the Universal Zodiac 95 

able to ferret out hidden causes, and give advice of 
priceless value by reason of their clear discernment 
of special needs. It depends almost wholly upon the 
attitude a person takes to things in general whether 
he will search for disease with the pathologist, or 
for health with the true spiritual scientist. Diagnosis 
is a favorite occupation with Scorpio, but diagnosis 
is a totally different thing with metaphysicians than 
with physicians and the ordinary run of medical clair- 
voyants. 

All who have read "If Christ Came to Chicago," 
by William Stead, and "If Jesus Came to Boston," 
by Edward Everett Hale, must have been forcibly 
struck with the thought of how easy it is to relate facts 
and confine one's illustrations to actual occurrences, 
and present, as one chooses, either a painfully pessi- 
mistic or a delightfully optimistic view of any situa- 
tion. Now the disposition to hunt up news, to col- 
lect statistics and to do reportorial or newsmongering 
work in general and in particular, may be either a 
very useful or an extremely offensive trait, according 
to the use or misuse made of it by its possessor. Ex- 
pressions in common use in society are rarely accur- 
ate; consequently the fine distinction which should 
ever be made between talking about people and talk- 
ing against them is not usually drawn. It is quite ami- 
able to talk about our neighbors, provided we say 
only good of them; therefore, the habit of talking 



96 The Significance of Birthdays 

about people when their backs are turned should not 
be regarded as offensive or unkind, unless the re- 
marks made concerning them are unkind or in any 
way censorious. So sure do we feel that people will 
always seek to fulfill their natures, and that all na- 
tures are good, that we cannot positively condemn 
even the practice of gossiping, to which Scorpio peo- 
ple are especially prone; for gossip in itself is not 
by any means an evil, but on the contrary, when 
wisely directed, may be made the means of accomp- 
lishing much real good. 

There is, however, a still graver tendency which 
is very prominent in this sign, and that is the ex- 
treme tendency to sexuality which characterizes it, 
Scorpio corresponding to the generative organs. 
Much is often said and written on this always deli- 
cate subject, but in very few instances do we find 
esoteric physiology taught with much definiteness and 
directness. The sexual impulses are not evil, and 
when rightfully directed their usefulness is clearly 
seen ; thus the excessive animality which distinguishes 
so many Scorpio persons is capable of being transmut- 
ed into genuine active psychical ability. The love 
principle being the life principle, there is always 
strong vitality and much opportunity for good, wher- 
ever there are any strong impulses of any kind; and 
those impulses, which are commonly called animal 
and carnal, are only such on the most exterior plane 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 97 

of life's manifestation. All great intellectual and 
artistic work is accomplished by means of that very 
animal vigor, otherwise directed, which, when it ex- 
presses solely on the most physical plane, is the ser- 
pent of temptation mentioned in Genesis and else- 
where in the Bible. 

There are two distinct tempters mentioned in the 
Bible, the serpent and Satan; and these are but dif- 
ferent aspects of the same sign. Judas Iscariot was 
the one among the twelve apostles who was- cast out 
of the apostolic fraternity, but his place was taken 
by Matthias, as eleven could not fulfill the require- 
ment of a complete fraternity, which must have a 
representative of each of the twelve divisions of 
the Zodiac. If you read the 49th chapter of Gen- 
esis and then the 7th chapter of Revelations, in both 
of which chapters the twelve tribes of Israel are 
specially referred to by name, you will find that in 
Genesis the name Dan occurs, while it is missing in 
Revelations, yet there are twelve in each enumera- 
tion. Of Dan it is said in Genesis 49, "he shall be 
a serpent in the way, an adder in the path that 
biteth the horse's heels so that the rider falleth back- 
ward." Those words convey exactly the correct 
idea of the sensual proclivities of human nature, so 
long as they are undisciplined by the higher ele- 
ment in character. In the Apocalypse Dan is omit- 
ted, and yet there are twelve. This involves on its 



98 The Significance of Birthdays 

truly esoteric side a deeper problem than we may yet 
be able to solve ; but whether we have reached its in- 
most meaning or not, we can certainly discern this 
truth, that as we figuratively take up serpents, we 
transmute but do not destroy the elements of lower 
selfhood. 

We hear altogether too much of the mere strug- 
gle for existence, and far too little of the strug- 
gle for improvement. The procreative faculty is 
usually looked at from far too low a plane, and on 
far too earthy a side; therefore, the question of re- 
production is either ignored or handled as though it 
were something not agreeable to discuss. Until all 
such false modesty is removed, and the most import- 
ant questions touching human welfare are freely and 
honorably treated from all sides, we shall look in 
vain for any vital progress in the direction of the 
improvement of the human species. 

Scorpio, the so-called adversary in the Zodiac, is 
properly not Satan the Accuser, but Lucifer the 
Light-bringer. The whole cosmic tragedy of the fall 
of Lucifer, who, when fallen, becomes Satan, con- 
cerns the debasement of the reproductive force in 
nature; and when in very early times, Phallic wor- 
ship prevailed universally — -and it was beautiful be- 
fore it became corrupted — the Phallic emblems de- 
noted purely spiritual ideas, clothed in appropriate 
natural garments. 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 99 

Henry Drummond in "The Ascent of Man," em- 
phasizes very strongly what we are endeavoring to 
teach regarding the struggle everywhere manifest in 
nature, not simply for continued but improved exist- 
ence, which is a fuller and more glorious manifesta- 
tion of the purpose of living. The survival of the 
fittest would never be accomplished through simple 
reproduction. It can only be brought about through 
the agency of improved production. Thus can we 
accept two proverbs, "History repeats itself" and 
"We must make the best of things," and so give 
expression to helpful metaphysical ideas; that evolu- 
tion with its sublime doctrine of transmutation en- 
shrined in its very heart at its vital core, may illum- 
inate our student pathway and show us how to make 
the best of so-called bad. things by transforming them 
into what is positively good and appreciably bene- 
ficent. 

Scorpio is the sign of the alchemists whose ambi- 
tion it is to turn base metals into gold; and where 
can we find a fitter or exacter illustration of what we 
can actually accomplish within ourselves, than by 
considering how this dream of the mystics may be 
practically fulfilled in the evolution of nobler char- 
acter than ever appeared before? 

Scorpio children need very careful training. They 
require the most helpful counsel and tender loving 
guidance to assist them to overcome the perils which 



1 00 The Significance of Birthdays 

always surround their way, as they are inclined to be 
very inflammable, and when their passions are great- 
ly aroused they may do desperate deeds for which 
they may deeply repent after much mischief has been 
accomplished. Persons in this sign have usually very 
quick tempers. Their nature is volcanic. The dis- 
orders to which they are most subject are of an in- 
flamatory type. As all aberrations can be successful- 
ly conquered by mental methods, but special methods 
are adapted to special cases, we should recommend 
all who have much to do with people in this sign to 
adopt soft colors and employ gentle music. Mental 
stimulants like martial music and scarlet robes are 
good for Cancer people, but Scorpio people need 
quieting. They require much sleep, and are better 
without highly seasoned foods and exciting entertain- 
ment. At their best they are very original, daring 
and creative in their genius, capable of much success 
through bold enterprise, but unless well mellowed 
in disposition they are erratic, impatient, and the 
appetites are too little held in subjection to intelli- 
gence. 

Curiosity is a leading trait of all Scorpio natures, 
and this may range all the way from a disagreeable 
prying into other people's affairs, to a remarkable 
shrewdness of observation and highly useful penetra- 
tion. 

The cusp which occurs about October 2 1 , when 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 101 

Libra merges into Scorpio, is a time when birth is 
given to many very remarkable geniuses, and we 
shall find that many of the most distinguished people 
the world has ever known have combined great sens- 
uality with high intellectual development and a keen 
sense of abstract equity. The cusp which occurs 
about November 2 1 , when Scorpio merges into Sag- 
ittarius, is the natal time of many remarkable people 
also, and those who blend these two signs in their 
makeup are usually extremely swift in action, quick 
to decide, impulsive and determined to vigorously 
sweep aside all obstacles which may confront them. 

Mephistopheles as drawn by Goethe is a true de- 
lineation of Scorpio at its worst when degraded and 
debased; but take the same subtlety and diplomatic 
ability and raise it to a noble plane, and what a 
splendidly successful being in honorable ways that 
same Mephistopheles would be. Though censorious 
fault-finding is often displayed by Scorpio people, 
they must learn that the intensely critical disposition, 
which is theirs by right, can be used so wisely, up- 
rightly and lovingly, that instead of censuring their 
fellows and making the world a harder place for sen- 
sitive natures to live in, they can so consecrate and 
wisely use their critical acumen that they can see 
through all deceptive appearances, save those who 
would otherwise be victimized, and produce in the 
society in which they move a higher tone of righteous- 
ness. 



Though comparatively few very remarkable per- 
sonages are to be found in this sign, i. e., few whose 
gifts or genius can be said to lift them entirely be- 
yond the average run of men and women, there are, 
indeed, many who are domiciled in Sagittarius whose 
accomplishments are certainly of no mean order. This 
autumnal sign, whose period extends from about 
November 2 1 to December 2 1 , is indicative of a very 
direct nature, an excellent marksman, one who will 
never willingly permit himself to be turned aside to 
accommodate any considerable circumstance. 

Were we to single out an example of this type of 
character by referring to a piece of mechanically 
executed workmanship, we should choose for our 
simile the celebrated railway between the two Rus- 
sian capitals, Moscow and Petersburg. This rail- 
road, built by order of one of the best of the Czars, 
was executed by soldiers in days of peace, men who 
proved their abundant ability to render useful service 
of a constructive nature when not engaged in the 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 1 03 

destructive pursuit of war. This unique road is laid 
between the two great cities without the slightest ref- 
erence to the convenience of any persons who live 
between the two capitals. It is intended to serve as 
a speedy means of transit between Petersburg and 
Moscow, and it does so. It has a definite, well de- 
fined mission, and it fulfills it. We often hear the 
expressions "a bee line" and "as the crow flies." 
These expressions are thoroughly characteristic of 
the action of genuinely Sagittarius people. An ar- 
row shot from a bow hitting a predetermined mark 
without any miscarriage, is the sign of the Archer 
in the Zodiac. 

Whatever this type of person may be, he is decid- 
edly not a bore. He never uses unnecessary words, 
and is a great economist of time as well as energy. 
Circumlocution is atrocious in his eyes, and he has 
little patience with those who lack directness, and 
use up oceans of other people's time and strength, in 
crawling and meandering to the point they wish to 
gain. As there is a natural vibratory sympathy be- 
tween man and the elements of nature around 
him, it is not remarkable that at a season of the year 
when the coldest weather is approaching, and there 
is a brisk frostiness in the air, inviting, almost com- 
pelling, rapid motion, those who are ushered into 
mortal existence under such bracing atmospheric in- 
fluences, should be swift of thought, quick of motion, 



104 The Significance of Birthdays 

nimble and fleet-footed in all senses of the term. 

We must here make a seeming digression from our 
central point in this essay, to answer a pertinent in- 
quiry often put to us in much the following phrase: 
If people are born at the antipodes under the South- 
ern Cross, must not the statements made in the North- 
ern Hemisphere concerning the constellations be com- 
pletely reversed? 

To this question we reply that there is much rea- 
son in such a query, and as by far the largest portion 
of the human family are born north of the equator 
a special explanation may be needed for Australasia, 
South America and South Africa. This specific 
teaching, however, could easily be given by any one 
who simply bears in mind the obvious fact, that the 
seasons being completely reversed below the line, the 
characteristics of Aries might be manifested in Libra; 
those of Taurus, in Scorpio, and those of Gemini, in 
Sagittarius, as mid-summer in the Northern Hemi- 
sphere is mid-winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and 
vice versa. 

To return to Sagittarius immediately and endeavor 
to delineate its leading qualities, we may fairly say 
that those are, in a marked degree, love of freedom, 
impatience of all restraint and hatred of delays. 
The fastest express trains and the swiftest of ocean 
greyhounds often seem slow in their progress to the 
pure Archer type of man or woman, who seeks to 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 105 

consummate every engagement without a moment's 
unnecessary delay. We look confidently for the per- 
fection of the means of aerial transit to ambitious 
scientists who belong in this section of the Zodiac; 
and not only do we rely upon them to furnish means 
for surpassingly swift locomotion, but we expect from 
them innumerable discoveries and practical annihila- 
tion of distance in all respects. 

It cannot be denied that however great may be the 
interest taken in an attempted solution of psychic 
problems by a great variety of mental types to-day, 
there are but very few people, comparatively, who 
attain to anything like eminence as thought trans- 
mitters. Mental telegraphy, telepathy, thought trans- 
ference, and all phenomena allied thereto, are only 
susceptible of being brought to a high pitch of de- 
monstrable perfection by people who possess distinct- 
ly Sagittarius attributes. We do not mean to say 
anything disheartening to anybody who is striving to 
do good in any manner, but the words are ever true, 
"There are diversities of gifts, though but one spir- 
it;" and though, "The manifestation of the spirit is 
given to every man to profit withal," there are distinct 
types of its expression; all when rightly understood 
being of equal use and value. 

In teaching and healing ministries we all discover 
that some people are far better adapted to convey 
instruction aloud than silently. Others, again, do 



1 06 The Significance of Birthdays 

their very best work in the silence. Some healers 
only do their best work in presence of their patients, 
while others succeed equally well, if not better, when 
giving absent treatment. The type of people we are 
now considering is, as a class, noted for its ability to 
send thought waves to great distances. Clear-cut, 
finely articulated mental messages always travel 
further than those which are less definite and precise. 
The very clearest and most direct frame of mind is 
essential to the best success in absent healing, and we 
certainly cannot help observing, when we only listen 
to people's voices and watch their movement, how far 
they are characterized by precise definiteness, in 
which Sagittarius usually excels. 

Some people consider the pure or full Sagittarius 
type disagreeable, because it is so often blunt, 
brusque, and reaches a point with little, if any, of that 
tact or diplomatic skill, which so greatly softens the 
asperity of unpalatable, though truthful sayings; but 
there is one great advantage to be derived from the 
intense outspokenness of the Sagittarius temperament, 
and that is, it leaves no doubt whatever as to the 
meaning intended to be conveyed. 

This type of humanity is extremely intuitive, and 
is, therefore, given to seership and prophecy. Self- 
reliance is another marked trait; and so perfectly self- 
confident are persons in this sign, and generally 
well balanced, that their very confidence secures them 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 107 

against the many accidents which so often befall the 
unwary. The ability to lead while others follow is a 
marked trait; and it is quite appropriate to mention 
also, in this connection, an astonishing development in 
the region of locality. Sagittarius people rarely miss 
their way. Place them in utterly strange surround- 
ings, and they will, unless nervously agitated, find 
their way instinctively to any point they desire to 
reach, and instead of following a circumlocutory 
track, they will compass the distance along the most 
direct line possible between any two points. Such 
people must be self-reliant, or they are lost. They 
cannot afford to be led by others, as they seem fre- 
quently to have such peculiar missions and extraord- 
inary vocations, necessitating the employment of such 
unusual insight, that they are soon lost in a wilderness 
of perplexity, if they take counsel with others instead 
of heeding the dictum of their own inner feeling. 

Great activity amounting often to restlessness is 
another feature of these people. In the business world 
they are generally rushing, driving, pushing, quick to 
see and ready to take immediate advantage of every 
opening or opportunity for advancement. They ac- 
complish much in the way of definitely consummat- 
ing arrangements, while their neighbors, in other 
signs, are pondering, meditating and talking the mat- 
ters over with their advisers. Whenever quick action 
in a case of emergency is needed, Sagittarius is the 



1 08 The Significance of Birthdays 

readiest and ablest of all to furnish the required as- 
sistance ; and though his motions are very swift, he is 
not flurried, nor does he blunder. 

As great reserve power is indicated by this sign, it 
may be truly remarked, that, though Sagittarius peo- 
ple display great ability for active exertion in cases of 
emergency, they are apt to appear uninteresting, and 
even indolent, when there is no special cause for activ- 
ity. When they rest they can sleep profoundly and 
quietly await the hour when necessity arouses them 
from slumber. 

As the physiological correspondence is always sug- 
gestive, it is well to consider the province and func- 
tions of the hips and thighs, when considering the 
characteristics of those whose nativity is between No- 
vember 20 and December 20. As this sign changes 
into Capricorn, i e., at the commencement of the 
cusp, on or about December 1 8, we find strong tend- 
encies to endure hardships, and also decided econom- 
ical traits, for which the Goat is so pre-eminently 
celebrated. The marksman shooting straight at his 
mark, and rarely, if ever, missing his aim, will always 
be the symbol of the Archer ; and when this is borne 
in mind, it is not difficult to see how much easier it is 
for Sagittarius people, than for many others, to obey 
the wise injunction — look forward, not backward. 

The very strongest and most admirable Sagittarius 
tendency is the happy disposition to persistently per- 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 1 09 

severe in whatever has been undertaken. When the 
hand has been once put to the plow, not even a 
glance must be cast behind, if victory is to be gained 
and the goal successfully reached. In the accomp- 
lishment of desires on which their hearts are set, 
Sagittairus people are unusually successful, and their 
wishes are speedily fulfilled. This is because they 
are not prone to loiter on the road. They do not 
procrastinate or dilly-dally, but march right onward. 
Therefore belonging to this section of the Zodiac, 
we find many successful generals and military com- 
manders, who can so command the manoeuvres of 
their troops, that by prompt, decisive, sudden action, 
a victory may be gained, even when the odds against 
it appear to be tremendous. 

The faults which are often conspicuous in any 
class of people are abnormal or inverted characteris- 
tics which may at any time be relinquished, as they 
are fungus growths or parasites, and no portion of 
the essential tree. Taking this stand with regard to 
failings and unpleasant eccentricities, such as charac- 
terize impostors, bores and other decidedly disagree- 
able people, we do not dwell upon disorderly condi- 
tions as properly pertaining to any sign, but only in- 
cidentally mention them as perversions or inversions 
of inherently excellent qualities. The chief faults to 
which Sagittarius people are liable are no doubt 
petulance and irritability, proceeding from an ex- 



1 1 The Significance of Birthdays 

tremely nervous organization, highly strung and very 
responsive to external influences until disciplined to 
look within. 

Many Sagittarius people make good old fash- 
ioned Quakers in one sense, and when they adopt 
something of the Quaker mode of worship they are 
likely to derive great good from it; for no practice 
serves them so well as to sit serenely in the silence and 
allow the spirit within to commune with the intellect 
and direct its path on the road to true wisdom. 
Sagittarius people may often spend much of their 
time in silent work. They are first rate telepathists. 
Mental telegraphy they can comprehend and prac- 
tice readily, because of their peculiar incisiveness of 
thought and action. And after all no matter how 
many treatises may be prepared upon the subject — 
the kernel of all that can be said on qualifications for 
the practise of thought transference may be com- 
pressed into the following words: Take a straight, 
steady, mental aim; know exactly what you wish 
to convey, and where and to whom and for what pur- 
pose you desire to convey it; then go ahead; shoot 
your arrow from your bow, trusting to the law of the 
universe to bring about the result. 



94 






Wp (Bmt 

It is a noteworthy fact that all the feasts and fasts 
of the Christian calendar owe their literal origin to 
astronomy and astrology, and nowhere does this fact 
strike the thoughtful student more impressively than 
at Christmas-tide, when the earth enters Capricorn 
on the shortest day of the year, December 2 1 . Fol- 
lowing this day dedicated to Saint Thomas, the 
doubting Didymus of gospel story, come the three 
days of uncertainty and gloom, according to the old 
Egyptian idea, during which the sun was supposed 
to be imprisoned in Hades; then when December 
22, 23 and 24 are over, the sun reappears above the 
line on Christmas day, December 25, which is the 
natural birthday of the year, and celebrated on that 
account with the greatest jubilation from the ear- 
liest recorded time. The Roman Saturnalian feast 
and the Druid's Yuietide festivities can all be traced 
to the same origin. There is a deep significance in all 
celebrations which are held in honor of annual 
changes in the climate and general condition of the 



1 1 2 The Significance of Birthdays 

earth, as man sympathizes with the planet, and the 
planet reciprocally sympathizes with man* At the 
time of the winter solstice we reach the darkest, long- 
est nights and the shortest, dullest days ; but immedi- 
ately the night has seemingly gained a victory over 
the day ; the tables are turned, and at once we behold 
an increase in the length and brightness of the day, 
and consequently an equal decrease in the length and 
darkness of the night. 

For several centuries the Fathers of the Christian 
Church were undecided as to the proper time for 
celebrating Christmas. Some kept the festival of 
the nativity of the Christ in the spring ; others, in the 
autumn; but at length the unanimous decision was 
reached that it was highly appropriate to take the 
ancient solar festival of the new birth of Osiris, the 
light-bringer, and connect it with a distinctively 
Christian idea. Such is the origin of Christmas with 
all its traditions of frost and snow. 

We have no word of criticism for this beautiful, 
poetic yearly commemoration. We, however, are 
interested in knowing the truth relating to all things. 
Therefore, we never seek to hide the true origin of 
any celebrations on the specious plea that too much 
light may shatter ideals and strip commemorations of 
their old-time beauty and solemnity. The feast of 
Christmas is so suggestive entirely apart from its 
ecclesiastical surroundings, that we find ourselves 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 1 1 3 

ready at any time to expatiate lovingly upon the les- 
sons we may profitably learn from the myriad asso- 
ciations which cluster thickly about it; and as the 
Christ child, whom all Christendom reveres, is said 
to have been born in the manger of the Zodiacal 
Goat, we may certainly say that the popular idea of 
the greatest teacher the world has ever seen, is that 
of a soul ultimated in Capricorn, which corresponds 
to the knees of the Grand Man, and, therefore, de- 
notes service, though not servitude. Those who will- 
ingly stoop are not slaves. A royal nature which 
takes a basin, girds itself with a towel and washes the 
feet of humble brethren is a kingly type of man. 
Ich dien (I serve) is one of the proudest mottoes of 
influential orders, notably of the Knights Templar. 
It is also the motto of the Prince of Wales, heir ap- 
parent to the British Crown. No finer or more ex- 
pressive words do we find in the entire Gospel than 
"I am among you as one that serveth," and "Who- 
ever would be greatest let him be servant to all." 
Serfdom is detestable because it implies coercion; 
and whatever service is rendered from compulsion, 
instead of willingly, is abominable. The Episcopal 
liturgy declares that the service of God is perfect 
freedom; and if that is the case- — which it undoubt- 
edly is — no slave can be other than the prostrate 
victim of some sort of error, from which he needs 
emancipation as quickly as possible. The true dis- 



1 1 4 The Significance of Birthdays 

tinction between work and labor is that the former 
is natural, spontaneous, healthful, enjoyable and es- 
sential to growth and general well-being, while the 
latter is irksome in the extreme. We shall all out- 
grow labor, but our work, our power to work and our 
love of work will go on perpetually increasing as we 
evolve to higher and ever higher states of conscious- 
ness in manifestation 

The typical Capricorn person is a bora worker; 
one who loves to be industrious. As a child such a 
one loves to help mother with the house work in 
every possible way, to run errands and to assist others 
in the fulfillment of their tasks. Comparatively few 
who are in this department of the Zodiac are born 
great, and equally few have what is commonly called 
greatness forced upon them ; but many such achieve a 
very true greatness, though it may be, and generally 
is, of a quietly effective and altogether unostentatious 
kind. Hewers of wood and drawers of water, as 
they are sometimes called in Biblical phrase, consti- 
tute the rank and file of the Social Army every- 
where ; and while a few may always be lifted to ex- 
traordinary heights of eminence, there must ever be a 
number who serve faithfully in the knees of the 
Archetypal Man. 

The fundamental error we are seeking to destroy 
all through these lessons is the wide spread belief that 
our situation in the Zodiac is either dignified or un- 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 1 1 5 

dignified, desirable or undesirable according to posi- 
tion. So long as this view is taken the absurd state- 
ment may be made that Capricorn is one of the un- 
pleasant signs, as though the knees of the great body 
of humanity need be diseased or disjointed any more 
than the shoulders or the hands. Such ludicrous 
fallacies as we find still promulgated in astrological 
treatises and works of allied character make it high- 
ly incumbent upon all who know better to disabuse 
the public mind on these questions, and explain the 
peculiarities of the various signs as simple variants in 
the expression of a perfect unity. 

Capricorn is not usually the home of very enterpris- 
ing or ambitious people, like those who are lodged in 
Aries. On the contrary, the disposition of the Zodia- 
cal Goat is rather contented with its present situation, 
which, however, it seeks diligently to improve by 
making the best of it in the true sense, viz., by making 
it yield all it is capable of yielding. 

We all know some people who are by nature so 
remarkably economical that they can make one dollar 
go decidedly further than many others would make 
five dollars go; and this is because of their practical 
utilitarian disposition, which causes them to see how 
best to use every cent to the utmost possible advant- 
age. The horns of the goat and its disposition to 
butt must also be taken into consideration; likewise 
the surefootedness of this often much maligned ani- 



1 1 6 The Significance of Birthdays 

mal, and furthermore its proverbial ability to thrive 
upon what other creatures could not possibly digest. 
Take the Goat as a sample of Capricorn's influence, 
and we shall readily find a key to unlock the mys- 
teries of character which specially belong to those of 
our brothers and sisters whose natal day is somewhere 
between December 20 and January 20. Persever- 
ance, plodding industry, resolute determination to 
vanquish even the greatest obstacles are some of the 
most prominent traits we are likely to encounter. 
Self-will, even stubborn obstinacy, is characteristic 
of Capricorn, whose nature is so stalwart, that, 
though it will bend to the lowest works and subsist 
upon next to nothing, there is a sturdy vein of self 
reliance running through it all, which may be char- 
acterized in some such sentence as this: "I am willing 
to work even at the humblest trade; I am ready to 
get down upon my knees and scrub the floor, but I 
will not be put down ; no one shall degrade or trample 
upon me." 

The phrase "poor and proud" often describes 
Capricorn; but honest poverty is independent and 
canhot for an instant be compared with abject desti- 
tution, except to mark a vivid contrast. Voluntary 
poverty is one thing; involuntary destitution is quite 
another. We cannot give anything away if we have 
nothing to bestow; consequently the idea of poverty 
being in some cases voluntary proves that they who 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 1 1 7 

are now voluntarily poor are not compelled to be so. 
Among notable people who are found in Capricorn, 
we will mention as first and foremost William Ewart 
Gladstone, one of the most truly remarkable men of 
his age; a man who at eighty-five years appeared 
hale, vigorous and intellectually as able as when in 
the prime of early manhood, the Capricorn tempera- 
ment being proverbially that which conquers ob- 
stacles and simply will not succumb to difficulties. 
Gladstone evidenced it in singularly high degree,, for 
during his long parliamentary career he van- 
quished nearly every foe who measured steel with 
him in the intellectual arena, and proved himself 
the proud possessor of a physique so marvellously en- 
dowed with recuperative vigor that an operation for 
removal of cataract was perfectly successful 
in his case, though between eighty and ninety years 
of age at time of its performance, while many a man 
twenty years his junior would be regarded as quite 
too old to bear the strain and recover sufficiently to 
make the surgical experiment worth while. The in- 
domitable push and perseverance manifested all 
through Gladstone's public career has marked him a 
true illustration of the celestial Goat. Many people 
may differ radically from him in nearly every con- 
clusion; not a few there were who considered him 
the Nemesis of Great Britain; but all, including his 
most determined opponents, pay tribute to his power. 



] 1 8 The Significance of Birthdays 

Though all persons can, if they will, develop a 
large share of persevering industry and dogged de- 
termination to succeed, it does not come equally easy 
to all to do so. The Capricorn temperament is born 
to butt its way successfully through the world in 
spite of obstacles ; and while many temperaments are 
soon discouraged by the apparent force of hostile 
agencies, the type now under consideration is one 
that rises on emergency and literally loves to battle 
with the breakers and win a victory through even the 
fiercest storm. 

It is also decidedly worthy of note that Charles 
Sumner and Lucretia Mott were both born in Capri- 
corn ; and here again we see decided evidences of the 
indomitable perseverance which characterizes this 
sign more than any other. Lucretia Mott, as is well 
known, espoused the cause of woman suffrage, and 
protested against slavery in all its forms, in defiance 
of the most determined opposition. Of gentle na- 
ture, though firmness personified, she led where others 
scarcely dared to follow; and as a noble pioneer of 
freedom her name is loved and esteemed to-day as 
one of the greatest emancipators of thought her cen- 
tury had witnessed. Her motto, "Truth for author- 
ity, not authority for truth," is now a household 
phrase wherever liberality of sentiment prevails and 
people dare to assert the courage of conviction. 
Charles Sumner, again, was a man who dared to face 
anything ; and through his fearlessness, as well as by 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 1 1 9 

reason of his unusual ability, he won for himself an 
honored place in the American College of Immor- 
tals. 

The Capricorn temperament is, of course, when 
undisciplined liable to peculiar aberrations, especially 
to that form of self-assertion which may be called 
head-strong obstinacy ; but tenacity of will and reso- 
luteness of purpose are the normal characteristics of 
this sign. It is, therefore, quite unnecessary to treat 
it pathologically. In private life this type of men 
or women excels in conquering little things, in rising 
superior to the petty disabilities which threaten to 
impede the progress of the average person ; and it is 
in business and in the household that the Goat in the 
Zodiac uses its horns to the very best advantage. 

Capricorn people often meet with decided opposi- 
tion, and the fates seem frequently to war against 
them, but they defy fate and triumph over circum- 
stances. To make environments submissive to their 
will; to prove the rightful ascendancy of mind over 
things — this is their special work; and though their 
path is not generally thickly strewn with roses, they 
conquer by sheer force of determination to succeed. 
Of all the twelve manners of people they are the least 
ready to show the "white feather," or allow that they 

have been or ever can be defeated. 

There are many successful mental soldiers in this 
sign, and the amount of private heroism practiced in 



120 The Significance of Birthdays 

unsuspected ways by many who represent it in home 
and business life is inestimable. There is a great deal 
of the bull-dog nature in Capricorn, and so much per- 
sistence of every kind, that defeat to such natures, 
when normal, appears impossible. Those who ad- 
mire a soft, yielding disposition, or who seek effemin- 
ate luxuries, will not be much in sympathy with this 
relentless disposition which succeeds by utter force of 
grip and inward strength. Whenever a hard battle 
needs fighting, an unpopular cause steadily defend- 
ing, or any enterprise pushing to a victory in spite 
of the most discouraging symptoms, Capricorn is 
ready to take up the work and do it manfully and 
womanfully. 

In the practice of mental healing the characteristics 
of this sign are very desirable, as they include ability 
to conduct successfully the most depressed and de- 
pressing cases, and to hold on to the thought of 
health, even when every sign of disease is evident to 
mortal view. "Never say die" and nil desperandum 
are mottoes which belong to this section of the Zodiac 
especially ; and though the more genial and attractive 
qualities common to Aries and Leo may often be 
absent from Capricorn, for sturdy devotion to any 
undertaken task this mid-winter constellation unques- 
tionably bears the palm. The goats are outside the 
fold; they do not need shepherding; they can take 
care of themselves; and though they are often alluded 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 1 2 1 

to as lascivious, and, in many ways, unholy, they are 
simply the representatives of a great amount of ener- 
gy, all of which, if it be expressed as yet on the 
lower planes, can be transmuted and directed into 
the purest, noblest and most useful channels. To 
make the best of things; to make a little go a great 
way ; to endure hardships so as to conquer them, and 
not be conquered by them; to live anywhere 
and derive one's support from nature, even in the 
most adverse climates, these are prominent traits of 
Capricorn people. Ready to work anywhere, and 
capable of succeeding anywhere, they are, in our 
judgment, like the knees in the body, powerful sup- 
ports to the entire frame. Knees bend easily, and 
in bending they are not broken; their joints are flexi- 
ble and they can bear a great amount of strain with- 
out injury. To learn well the lesson of the knees; 
to grasp the right idea of service; to know how to 
master obstacles and conquer our fate, mak- 
ing much out of little and compelling circum- 
stances to bend to our decree and do our bidding— 
this is to know the secret of Capricorn, the most truly 
optimistic of all the signs, as it is the one which most 
readily demonstrates the truth of optimism. 

As we are often confronted with temporarily aber- 
rant conditions, we may encounter persons in this 
sign who appear considerably the reverse of the best 
we have indicated; but as disorderly states can be 



1 22 The Significance of Birthdays 

vanquished and the true nature of the sign revealed, 
it is unscientific to assume that because certain people 
are misrepresenting themselves they are incapable of 
being led to a state where they will correctly repre- 
sent their nativity. Through development character 
is not radically changed, but its expression is rend- 
ered symmetrical. 



>^, ^'* a 






tater fearer. 



The familiar figure of the man with the watering 
pot naturally suggests this, the eleventh sign in the 
Zodiac, whose title Water-bearer immediately brings 
before us the thought of irrigation and all things 
pertaining thereto. Having considered the Paul-like 
qualities of Aries at the outset of these studies, we 
have now reached that point in our consideration of 
the twelve great divisions of mankind, where we are 
confronted with the Apollos-like characteristics 
common to Aquarius. "Paul planted, Apollos wat- 
ered, God gave the increase," is a text from which 
an excellent analytical sermon could be preached 
concerning the special work of that particular kind of 
people with those peculiarities we have now to deal. 
We are all thoroughly familiar with the fiery, in- 
trepid, energetic pioneer who runs up and down the 
country planting churches, holding revivals, starting 
societies and generally awakening interest in what- 
ever appears to him to be of the highest value, and 
we are, also, familiar with those far less con- 



1 24 The Significance of Birthdays 

spicuous, but none the less effective, workers who fol- 
low after the enthusiastic promoter of some new en- 
terprise and water the ground patiently and contin- 
ally wherein the seed has been sown. 

Aquarius is not the sign of the brilliant orator so 
much as the home of the patient, quiet, unobtrusive, 
faithful teacher, one who knows just how to irrigate 
the mental soil and carefully tend such natures as 
require judicious treatment if they are to show forth 
the best that is in them. Persons born between 
January 20 and February 20 of any year are very 
apt to find themselves impelled by natural disposition 
to occupy the teacher's seat. It may be publicly or 
it may be quite in private that they exercise their 
honorable function of imparting knowledge, "line by 
line and precept by precept," for that is their method. 
These people are often gifted with a wealth of il- 
lustration. They are fine reasoners and can usually 
adapt their utterances to the comprehensions of any 
children or adults with whom they may be thrown. 
They often excel as healers and instructors of private 
classes, and their persistency makes up for any lack 
of fire and apparent energy they may fail to possess. 

We notice that in this sign were born Abraham 
Lincoln, Robert Burns, the poet of freedom whom 
Scotland idolizes, Swedenborg, Thomas Paine, 
Strauss, Thomas Edison, the so-called "wizard of 
the nineteenth century," Talleyrand and many other 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 125 

extremely notable people. Careful examination into 
the careers of such widely dissimilar people 
as Emanuel Swedenborg and Thomas Paine, or 
Abraham Lincoln and the electric Edison, will show 
that no matter how utterly different their outward 
courses may have been, they all possessed the faculty 
of keeping on steadily with whatever they had under- 
taken until they succeeded in making their work tell 
powerfully. Lincoln, as one example of Aquarius 
at its best, may be cited as a largely self-made man, 
a man whose industry and sterling worth raised him 
from obscurity to unusual eminence. He was slow 
of speech and deliberate in manner and frequently 
annoyed impulsive people, who wished to rush busi- 
ness in a desperate hurry, by his leisurely methods of 
procedure ; but he was sure of his position before he 
took it, and, having taken it, he was uncompromis- 
ingly tenacious of the stand which conviction had 
impelled him to occupy. 

Swedenborg was a deep student, a tireless worker, 
a most painstaking experimentalist, who, long be- 
fore his remarkable illumination in 1757, had pub- 
lished scientific and philosphic works in great abund- 
ance, displaying surprising erudition, and marked at 
every turn with the footprints of a genius which 
might very well be described as an infinite capacity 
for taking pains. 

Consider also the work of Thomas Paine, whose 



126 The Significance of Birthdays 

conscientious adherence to conviction is now beyond 
dispute, and who, despite his iconoclasm in some 
directions and his lack of insight into the interior 
meaning of the Bible, has given us some of the 
grandest sayings extant in any literature, not ex- 
cepting the very highest. "Every man a brother, 
every woman a sister, the world my country, to do 
good my religion." What can be sublimer than 
such sentiments? And the marvel of it is that they 
were written at a time when the most unfraternal 
theories were circulating in every direction; when 
church and state alike were eaten up with partisan 
jealousies and devoured by hostile factions every- 
where. 

Robert Burns is another example of the same 
spirit of manly fearlessness. Who has protested 
more vigorously than he against every sort of sham? 
has exposed hypocrisy more boldly, and who has 
extolled genuine virtue more sincerely? 

Strauss, the sceptical author of a "Life of Jesus" 
and many other rationalistic works, also illustrates 
many of the leading traits of this decidedly unortho- 
dox and unconventional sign. 

Typical Aquarius people are always departing 
from accepted standards of belief and practice. They 
are among the most pronounced of the radical teach- 
ers of mankind, and if we are to have genuine teach- 
ers of any sort we must have eagles rather than par- 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 127 

rots ; men and women who soar, and do not imitate. 

Thomas Edison, who is one of the most conspicu- 
ous examples of the true Aquarius nature, richly en- 
dowed and broadly developed, is a forceful, living 
illustration of the whole-souled concentrativeness 
which is one of its most expressive features. It is 
recorded of this renowned electrician that shortly 
after his marriage with a woman between whom and 
himself the truest sympathy existed, he actually for- 
got that he was married, so thoroughly absorbed was 
he in important electrical experiments. 

Concentration on a given theme, complete devo- 
tion to a work in hand, entire absorption in the 
chosen duty — there may be fairly regarded as con- 
spicuous elements in the true Aquarius character. 
As Aquarius is placed in the airy trigon or triplicity, 
and air symbolizes imagination, we are not surprised 
to find that people who are deeply rooted in this sign 
are singularly aspirational and prophetic in mental 
tendency, but not as a rule positively impetuous. Be- 
ing addicted to elevating kinds of study they are 
generally well adapted either for a scientific or liter- 
ary career, which necessitates close application to 
the work in hand, coupled with much perspicuity. 
These people illustrate the truth of the proverbial 
saying that constant dropping wears away the hard- 
est stone. They win through their indomitable per- 
severance. They are often divinely patient and 



128 The Significance of Birthdays 

willing to allow the fruits of their efforts not to ap- 
pear, if need be, till after many days. Such people 
are frequently on the unpopular side of important 
questions. They are often vigorous reformers, but 
usually their work is done in a quiet, plodding way. 
They write their briefs and elaborate their essays 
with much precision. They are careful in expres- 
sion, weigh well their arguments and reach con- 
clusions by orderly, logical process. It is rarely you 
can disagree with an Aquarius person if you grant 
his premises, as faultless, logical style and wealth of 
elucidation of a theme are seldom absent from the 
speeches or writings of people of this type, who are 
usually better writers than speakers by reason of 
their measured style and lack of much personal mag- 
netism. They are like all truly intellectual people, 
given to brainy rather than hearty appeals; but in 
this statement we do not intend to imply any dispar- 
agement of their genius. We only mean that as Leo 
natives are disposed to regard everything from the 
centre of feeling, and that is characteristic of all the 
fiery signs, those in Aquarius and some other signs 
are touched more strongly by reasoning than by emo- 
tional excitement. 

It is extremely interesting to watch with what 
minute precision Swedenborg iterates and reiterates 
his propositions. He writes as a man of infinite leis- 
ure ; but, though he is somewhat tautological because 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 129 

extremely affluent in expression, those who follow 
him closely will perceive that no two sayings of his 
are exactly identical, and no two narrations are pre- 
cisely similar, though there is a close resemblance 
between a multitude of his expressions and records of 
wonderful experiences. 

Strauss when a young man (he wrote his "Life of 
Jesus" when fresh from the University he was 
not much over twenty-five years of age) exhibited all 
the peculiar limitations of the undeveloped individ- 
ualist; later on his style improved greatly. Utterly 
unlike the poetic and romantic Renan, who was also 
a sceptic, Strauss wrote a somewhat barren story, and 
instead of seeking to explain unusual occurrences in 
a rational manner, if possible; he simply dismissed 
them as incredible and strove to account for legends 
in so very matter-of-fact a manner that the reader 
soon grows weary of his most inadequate common- 
places. Such writing is that of a man seeking to stifle 
or repress imagination. No so-called "development 
theory" will satisfy the inquiring spirit of to-day, 
which is a most enterprising and ambitious spirit ; but 
there is a grand service which cool, deliberative in- 
tellect can render to the present psychical research 
movement; and that is to sift evidence, compare tes- 
timonies, dispassionately examine into alleged mar- 
vels and then give the public the clearly reasoned 
result of so wise a system of procedure. 



1 30 The Significance of Birthdays 

In the sign Aquarius we find scholarly attainments 
of no mean order. This is a student's sign, and be- 
cause somewhat lacking in intuitive perception, those 
who most fully represent it are all the more given to 
such mental pursuits as tend to establish knowledge 
on a firm external base. 

According to physiological correspondence, 
Aquarius is in the ankles of the Archetypal Man, and 
surely the ankles, having great weight to support, 
need to be strong, firm and capable of much endur- 
ance. Following this suggestion we can read this 
type of humanity very accurately. They think and 
act for others; they are supports to their weaker 
neighbors, burden bearers, tireless, incessant, uncom- 
plaining workers when in good condition. Being 
very near the extremities of the social body they are 
singularly able to carry out their ideas to logical and 
complete conclusions,, 

Aquarius children are generally modest and re- 
tiring in behavior. If they show pride it is pride of 
intellect, not personal vanity. They are good schol- 
ars, patient at their lessons, though not especially 
quick in learning, and very fond of asking questions 
from books as well as of their teachers. 

All literary and scientific pursuits are suited to per- 
sons in this sign, though of course different individuals 
show special preferential aptitudes for particular 
studies. 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 1 3 1 

As Aquarius overshadows Pisces, and Pisces is 

the twelfth sign, signifying the feet of the Grand 
Man, or final ultimation of the entire organism, we 
observe that those born on the cusp of Pisces between 
February 18 and 22 are often particularly given to 
conceiving and executing new ideas. They have a 
wonderfully versatile faculty for grasping the, as yet 
uncomprehended or unthought of, and bringing it 
down to the every day affairs of earth. Though 
Aquarius is an airy, and Pisces a "Watery sign, and 
air signifies imagination and water intellect, the imag- 
ination of Aquarius is of a very practical, reasonable 
kind, and may safely be called the scientific type of 
imagination, whose special province it is to see ahead 
what can speedily be rendered actual. 






C t \ 



A, X^t ! < X \yfUt 



%\p %mmh mw~~W ****** ^¥ 

We have now reached the final section of the 
Zodiac, and are now in the feet or ultimate extremi- 
ties of the Maximus Homo. Feet and fish suggest 
the lines along which we must proceed if we are to 
duly comprehend the attributes specially pertaining 
to this, the most external region in the Zodiac, which 
is the place where the utmost circumference is reach- 
ed. It is interesting to note that George Washington, 
founder of the American Republic and its first Presi- 
dent, was born just as Aquarius had melted into 
Pisces (February 22), the period of Pisces extend- 
ing from about February 20 to March 20, the Ver- 
nal Equinox. Many other celebrities find their home 
in this, the last of the watery signs, where the waters 
become prolific of living creatures, and bring forth 
abundantly the moving denizens of ocean, lake and 
stream. Voltaire and Victor Hugo are two of the 
most notable modern representatives of this sign, 
whose distinguishing features are love of complete 
fulfillment of designs and final decoration of all that 
has been previously undertaken. 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 133 

The typical Pisces man, woman or child strikes us 
at once as one who is singularly precise and orderly, 
hating confusion, and very much objecting to leaving 
things in an unfinished condition. We may often visit 
the artistic studio or literary sanctum of an Aries 
person, and find a variety of pictures, statutes, manu- 
scripts, etc., in various stages of incompleteness, as 
Aries people often begin things which they never 
finish, and especially owing to their remarkable 
quickness of perception, they grasp an idea but can- 
not fully externalize it ; or, as is still of tener the case 
with them, they are so eager to rush to the newest 
work which they are conceiving that they neglect and 
even forget the subject of their earlier inspirations. 
Pisces people are the very reverse of this. Usually 
they are not originators, architects or designers, but 
they are fulfillers of the law to its utmost jot and tittle. 
Having set out to accomplish anything they insist 
on its entire completion, and being particularly apt 
at ending works which others have left unfinished, 
they are often successfully appealed to to write the 
last chapter of a story, or the last scene in a play, 
and to do a variety of useful things which their more 
flighty and impetuous neighbors have not concluded. 
We all know people whose pet delight is in fully 
finished productions, and whose chief aversion is to 
anything not fully carried out. 



1 34 The Significance of Birthdays 

We note how incomplete and, therefore, largely 
unsatisfying are the works of many distinguished 
novelists and playwrights of this day, notably those 
who, like Henrik Ibsen, the famed Norwegian dram- 
atist, allow the curtain to fall, as in "A Doll's 
House," upon an ending which is properly no end- 
ing, but only a transitional move, a temporary ex- 
pedient on the part of the bewildered heroine. Some 
people, notably those of the pure Pisces type, when 
well developed, can supply perfect endings to these 
unfinished pictures; but such persons are the very 
ones who are best adapted to externalize their own 
mental conclusions in such a way, that people un- 
like themselves and lacking in their culminative in- 
tellectual ability, may not be left at the mercy of 
uncertain conjecture as to the real lesson conveyed by; 
the play or novel. 

Pisces people are good moralists. They can easily 
write morals explanatory of fables written by their 
friends, who are in other sections of the Zodiac. We 
all know the careful hostess who inspects the guest 
chamber before the visitor's arrival, and makes sure 
that every detail of preparation is complete, even to 
pins in the pincushion and flowers in the vases. Such 
a woman is a good representative of Pisces, and 
she will also be very particular with her own dress, 
and quick to observe any lack of completeless in the 
apparel of another, and in the furniture of an apart- 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 1 35 

ment. Mural decorations, gilding of cupolas, finish- 
ing of spires and all similar work is congenial to this 
type of humanity, whose eyes are very quick to dis- 
cern outward deficiences wherever they may appear. 
As with all the other signs so with Pisces, there 
are various planes on which the distinguishing traits 
of the sign are most conspicuous with different indi- 
viduals born in it, and further differ with the same in- 
dividuals at different stages of their progress. It must 
never be forgotten that evolution and education do 
not radically or essentially change disposition, but by 
these means characters are raised, advanced and in 
every way assisted to more perfect expression. Pisces 
is a sign in which we find many pedestrians and 
travellers of all sorts ; children and adults who like to 
use their feet, and whose congenial occupation com- 
pels their use of these members. The desire for loco- 
motion may be expressed in the pettiest, fussiest, ex- 
ternal manner, or it may show itself forth in the sub- 
limest way. To travel with intellectual feet, regard- 
less of the motions of the pedals of the flesh, is to 
have attained to a means of locomotion which only 
such rare geniuses as Emerson and a few others seem 
to have comprehended yet; but we are certainly ap- 
proaching, and that rapidly, a state in consciousness 
where we shall dispense greatly, if not totally, with 
our present physical globe-trotting apparatus. We 
all know how familiar are the phrases, "change of 



1 36 The Significance of Birthdays 

air" and "change of scene." We all know how 
constantly physicians and others, fall back upon 
these trite recommendations when medicines, rea- 
sonings and all else seems to have failed, and 
we cannot deny that after an ocean voyage or a 
trip over land many a pallid invalid has returned 
home buoyant and vigorous to outward seeming. But 
these superficial appearances are often deeply treach- 
erous, for very soon after resuming the old life in 
the accustomed place, the old disorderly symptoms 
reappear, and another prolonged absence from home 
and business is seemingly necessitated. Pisces peo- 
ple of all with whom we are acquainted need to be 
kept most constantly on the move, and till they have 
grasped a higher philosophy than materialism they 
must have frequent physical change and motion to 
keep their machinery in working order. When they 
have become elevated in thought to a higher plane of 
consciousness, these natural pedestrians can enjoy ev- 
ery advantage of travel without stirring a yard from 
their domestic hearth. To the intelligent student 
of Mental Science it is extremely interesting to watch 
the true resurrection of various types of humanity to 
regenerate conditions. Pisces stands figuratively for 
all that baptism by water unto repentance and sub- 
sequent elevation of life signifies; and students of oc- 
cult lore know well enough that baptism by water 
signifies intellectual regeneration, which is nothing 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 137 

.less than a transposition of intelligence, a transference 
of thought, to a higher or interior realm. 

Pisces children are usually active and of rather a 
roaming disposition. They enjoy excursions in the 
woods, wandering by the streams, and out-door life 
generally. They are neat in their persons, orderly 
in their behavior and often given to write out com- 
positions with extraordinary accuracy. 

We do not say that people in this sign buy pic- 
tures for their frames, but we do find that as a rule 
they are not satisfied with unframed pictures. They 
are, unless highly awakened inwardly, too disposed 
to look at the setting of a gem. The casket which 
enshrines a jewel is often, to them, quite as much as 
the precious stone itself. Being very much concern- 
ed with ultimates these people are splendidly adapted 
to fashion receptacles for truth and to give attention 
to the minutest detail of expression. 

In this sign are to be found many actors, elocu- 
tionists, teachers of methods, instructors in languages, 
copyists, readers, decorative artists, coiffeurs, mil- 
liners, dressmakers, tailors and, in a word, people 
working at all sorts of trades which require the 
knack of putting an excellent finish to something. 

It is by no means a difficult task to trace the par- 
ticular inversions to which persons born at different 
seasons of the year are most liable until they have 
reached the height of the wise men, who rule their 



1 38 The Significance of Birthdays 

stars and are no longer classable among the unwise, 
who are ruled by them ; but to dwell at length upon 
tendencies to ailments of any kind is both depressing 
and unnecessary, as all besetting weaknesses, which 
most readily accompany special temperaments are 
simply inversions of the excellent qualities normally 
characteristic of the sign. Pisces, considered in its 
position of pedal extremities of the Grand Man, 
is most likely, if caught napping, to be at- 
tacked with some disorder of the feet, or with 
difficulty immediately connected with the most 
external aspects of business or family life. A very 
wise mental attitude to take is the following : When- 
ever you find yourself disposed to some special an- 
noyance, read your distinctive mission through it. If 
you are in Aries, and your head is liable to trouble 
you if you get unduly excited, consider that you are 
specially capacitated by nature to do excellent work, 
not only with your own head, but on behalf of the 
heads of your neighbors; for wherever our greatest 
strength lies, there are our temptations fiercest. We 
all have to do battle at the very point where we are 
capable of rendering the most efficient service; for 
wherever the scene of conflict is there must the vic- 
tory be ; and wherever the overcoming is, there do 
we find the victor's robe, wreath, palm and crown. 
In the Apocalypse there is a wonderful statement 
to the effect that he that overcometh shall receive 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac ] 39 

a new name, and a white stone wherein will be 
written the name which no other than its recipient 
can read. This refers to the glorious result of in- 
dividual victory, when the conqueror takes his seat 
and rules in his domain, to be henceforth no more a 
slave forever. Every one of us, no matter where 
we may find ourselves in the Zodiac, will have to 
wrestle until we have conquered, in the field of 
action in which our native strength is tried. The 
deep underlying truth contained in the doctrine of 
the successive incarnations of the same Ego, on this 
or some other planet, until final ascendancy over all 
the elements of nature is reached, is to be found in 
this most reasonable reflection; viz., that we must 
strive until we conquer. We must go over our 
lessons again and yet again until we have learned 
them to perfection. Physical dissolution solves no 
problems. Individual regeneration solves all prob- 
lems for the regenerating individual through the 
agency of orderly regenerative processes. Suicide is 
a weak act fraught with no exemption from the sub- 
jective bugbear we may vainly seek to escape from. 
There are no loopholes of escape from ourselves or 
from the consequences of our acts. The wheel of 
change turns with us dri it, until we have escaped 
from the wheel by soaring above it. 

Now that Oriental philosophies are being investi- 
gated pretty thoroughly in Europe and America, so 



140 The Significance of Birthdays 

that Americans and Europeans are beginning to un- 
derstand something of the wisdom of the ages con- 
cealed in all venerable systems in part, though wholly 
in none, the time is ripe for a searching comparison 
of the essentials of all religions and philosophies, to 
the end that we may discover the essential root of 
truth underlying all. Then as we cease piling refuse 
on this foundation, which is none other than the 
truth embodied in the old Quaker doctrine — there is 
a Christ in every man — we shall set to work intel- 
ligently to do our own work nobly and cease criticis- 
ing and reviling our neighbors because we differ one 
from the other as do forest trees, garden flowers and 
all the beautiful forms of nature in all her provinces 
or kingdoms. 

Let us take into our lives the full significance of 
the mottoes: We are all good, though we are all 
different; and We must agree to differ, but never 
disagree; and very soon we shall learn to solve ev- 
ery problem which now vexes us, and go forward as 
a happy, industrial army to the ideal commonwealth 
not so very far ahead. 



Having in the preceding essays endeavored — 
though but in barest outline — to give as lucid an 
account as possible of the predominating char- 
acteristics of twelve representative manners of peo- 
ple, classified according to the ancient idea of the 
Universal Zodiac or Archetypal Man, we, in this 
concluding essay, endeavor to answer some of the 
many questions which the preceding essays have 
raised. In the first place let us call attention to the 
four-fold division of the Zodiac, common to all 
writers, both ancient and modern. The four trigons, 
triplicities or domains, as they are called, are por- 
tioned out as follows: The fiery signs are Aries, 
Leo and Sagittarius, corresponding to the head 
(Aries), heart (Leo) and thighs (Sagittarius) of 
the Grand Man. 

The airy triplicity is composed of Gemini (the 
arms), Libra (the loins) and Aquarius (the ankles). 

The earthy trigon is constituted of Taurus (the 
neck) , Virgo (the solar plexus) and Capricorn (the 
knees). 



1 42 The Significance of Birthdays 

The watery domain contains Cancer (the breast), 
Scorpio (the genital organs) and Pisces (the feet). 

These four sections of the Zodiac may be very 
profitably studied by all who are seeking to compare 
one sign with another to the better understanding of 
the main subject in general and in particular. 

Those who are born in any part of the domain of 
fire are apt to be impetuous and inflammable in dis- 
position. When such persons collide it is as when 
two fires meet to produce an intense blaze; but this 
comparison needs to be followed on to its spiritual 
planes of application, if we would illustrate our 
theme by referring to the higher rather than to the 
lower aspects and expressions of this impulsive type 
of disposition. Those whose abode is in the realm 
of fire, if living on a merely animal plane of exist- 
ence, are very apt to fly into rages on slight provo- 
cation, and to be carried away by every novelty 
and exciting circumstance. They are highly sen- 
sational, melo-dramatic and tragic when keenly 
aroused, and are consequently the heroes in fields of 
strife of all descriptions. When such people are 
thrown together they are terribly apt to quarrel, and 
though frequently very affectionate in temperament, 
and sincerely attached to each other in the depths 
of their nature, on the surface of existence they 
may be embroiled in never ending conflict. When 
persons of this stamp rise from animality to intel- 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 1 43 

lectuality, and leave behind them the baser emotions 
common to the lower section of the fiery domain, 
they may be most successful collaborators and pro- 
duce a joint work of far more value than either 
i could produce singly; while on the highest moral 
altitudes and in the spiritual or interior degrees of 
these warm, impulsive signs, frequent exhibitions are 
made of a sublime and glorious enthusiasm for all 
that makes for righteousness, illustrating the prac- 
tical truth of the widely accepted doctrine, that love 
is the supreme power, the weightiest force in the 
universe. 

Fire has ever been directly associated with God, 
and equally with the devil by theologians. Never 
was there a divine appearance or revelation of any 
kind, according to the Jewish scriptures, but fire 
was directly connected with it. Moses is startled 
at the sight of a burning brush at Horeb. Elijah 
proves the superiority of Adonai to Baal by means 
of a fiery test; and so on through every recorded 
instance of a heavenly communication, fire enters 
conspicuously into the accompanying phenomena. 
The New Testament takes up the strain where the 
Hebrew prophets have left it; so when the Holy 
Spirit descends upon the apostolic company in Jeru- 
salem they witness cloven tongues of flame descend- 
ing upon those who are awaiting inspiration, prior 
to the entrance into them of that fullness of spiritual 



144 The Significance of Birthdays 

strength which causes them to transcend all ordinary 
limitations and prove themselves capable of rising 
to meet every conceivable emergency. Nature un- 
mistakably testifies to the reasonableness of this con- 
ception. Every living body is warm, while dead 
bodies are invariably cold. As the devil only means 
force inverted or power abused, a lake of fire is said 
to be satan's habitation, while God is said to dv ?11 
in fire forever, and more than that, the writer of /.he 
epistle to the Hebrews says: "Our God is a con- 
suming fire." 

The present popular study of comparative religion 
is fast revealing to the world the fact that the learned 
among all ancient peoples entertained the idea of fire 
as coeval and co-extensive with Deity. Animal wor- 
ship was only a lower form of worship, practised by 
the comparatively ignorant and illiterate ; but the 
word animal literally means a living creature, an or- 
ganism endowed with some animating principle ; from 
the Latin animus, anima, meaning mind or spirit, the 
English noun and adjective animal are directly de- 
rived. Wherein does an animal distinctly differ 
from a vegetable, but in that it is a higher form of 
organized existence, considerably warmer and with 
powers of locomotion which a plant does not possess. 

To follow out the correspondence of fire at all 
fully would require a good sized volume at the least ; 
but when we find that the ancients placed fire both 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 1 45 

in the head and heart of the Grand Man — and these 
are the universally acknowledged vital centres — we 
can judge something of the importance they attached 
to this most sacred of the elements. When mythol- 
ogies are studied even reverently with a view to grasp 
their inner meaning, we shall all be surprised to dis- 
cover how truly wise many of our far-off ancestors 
were, and how flippant is the conclusion based on 
gross ignorance, that nothing is worth anything 
unless it is brand new. 

It is said by some students of the different man- 
ners of people that those born in the same triplicity 
should not intermarry. If there is any truth or jus- 
tice in this remark it refers only to very undeveloped 
persons who are living entirely on the sense plane. 
Those who are in any way super-sensuous in their 
attainment, when both are in the fiery trigon, stim- 
ulate each other to proficiency in the noblest under- 
takings. The marriage question, however, cannot 
be settled by cold arguments concerning utility, un- 
less people are willing to surrender emotion to in- 
tellect altogether, and allow themselves to be actu- 
ated by utterly rationalistic considerations. As mar- 
riage, resulting in the birth of offspring, is a social 
question of the first importance, affecting the com- 
mon good of a community and the interest of the 
human family at large, it cannot be out of place to 
call upon people to consult the general weal, not 



' 46 The Significance of Birthdays 

merely to gratify their own impulses; but though an 
immense reform can be instituted in this direction, 
it will probably always remain true as Longfellow 
has said in his "Building of the Ship": 

"It is the heart and not the brain, 
That to the highest doth attain, 
And he who followeth love's behest, 
Far excelleth all the rest." 

When heart and head are truly blended we may 
safely say that the divine fire is aglow within us, 
and we are prepared to let our true light shine for 
the enlightenment of all humanity. Swedenborg's 
profound and lucid statement concerning fire, that 
its heat corresponds to love, and its light to wisdom, 
is the most perfect condensation of truth on the sub- 
ject to be found in any literature. Such a definition 
cannot be simplified or improved upon, and it opens 
so wide a field of thought that to follow it as a sug- 
gestive leader is to be introduced into an endless 
pasture land of richest herbage for the soul. 

The quality of air, being widely different from 
that of fire, suggests that the airy triplicity must be 
the home of natives who are by nature volatile and 
transitional in temperament or disposition. Air and 
fire always work well together. A draught is neces- 
sary to kindle a blaze, and wherever there is a raging 
fire a strong current of air accompanies it. The di- 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 147 

vine effluence is always compared in ancient scrip- 
ture to wind or breath, and we all know that quick 
breathing induces and accompanies added warmth 
of the system. 

As the subject of breath is now so much discussed 
among students of all phases of occultism, and 
breathing is unquestionably a vitally important 
process, while speaking of people who are in the 
airy constellations, it may be well to remark that 
their special power is in their breath, which is Kabal- 
istically related to imagination, as fire is always asso- 
ciated with affection. External breathing-exercises 
have a certain symbolic value, if only on account of 
their suggestiveness ; but breathing is really regulated 
by imagination, and as all people in the airy triplicity 
are naturally imaginative, it is well that they should 
understand the true nature of imagination, that they 
may understand themselves. Imagination is, prop- 
erly speaking, the imaging, portrait-taking or photo- 
graphic faculty, and is, therefore, directly connected 
with seership and vision. Clairvoyance is frequently 
exhibited, even during infancy, by children born in 
Gemini, Libra or Aquarius; and while disordered 
imagination leads many people into trouble, we know 
of no sure cure for any disorder except the truly ra- 
tional method pursued by intelligent Mental Scien- 
tists, who seek to discover the true province and func- 
tion of a faculty and usefully employ it accordingly 



1 48 The Significance of Birthdays 

with its natural intent. To attribute ideals to imag- 
ination is scientifically correct so far as language goes, 
provided the speaker is a genuine etymologist ; other- 
wise it amounts to a flippant dismissal of a subject 
too high for the foolish to grasp, and too deep for the 
thoughtless to comprehend. Imagination is the road 
to every new discovery and fresh achievement in 
science, literature and art. Without imagination 
we stagnate in cellars instead of breathing in the 
bracing air obtainable from the summits of our 
dwellings. 

The airy domain or province of the atmosphere 
is the habitat of all who are disposed to fly in thought 
above the solid earth of actual objectivity, and the 
moving waters of the subjective or intellectual realm, 
and take excursions from planet to planet, and find 
out as much as possible of what is going on in the 
psychic realm. There are more psychics or sensitives 
in the airy triplicity than in any of the other divisions 
of the Zodiac, and these natural born sensitives need 
perfect liberty to travel as they will through airy 
spaces in the unseen state. 

The fiery domain is the seat of rulers; the airy 
trigon is the abode of travellers. Restlessness is the 
weakness to which the denizens of the air are most 
addicted; but when they learn to utilize their roam- 
ing temperament for the highest good, they soon dis- 
cover that thought can move quickly and fly far afield 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 149 

without involving nervous irritability or constant agi- 
tation of the person. 

The earthy signs, Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn 
are the abodes of the most practical and executive 
types of people, those who love external order and 
desire to carry everything out to its logical fulfill- 
ment. Service is the one word which best expresses 
the function of this triplicity, and it is only when 
actively engaged in some useful undertaking that 
such people are really well or happy or feel in any 
way satisfied with their condition. People of this 
type do not, as a rule, agree very well with those 
who belong in the airy trigon, unless both are singu- 
larly well developed, as those whose home is in one 
of the earthy signs, though ever so idealistic in some 
respects, cannot be content to let things rest in the 
vapory realm of speculation. Air people are often 
flighty and volatile, and are satisfied to dream of 
things they never execute; but earth people, though 
they may be very spiritual in their conceptions, axe 
determined not to rest till they have ultimated their 
own or somebody's else ideals. When air and earth 
people understand each other, they can enter into 
partnership and produce a singularly felicitous result 
of joint activity. 

Concerning the watery signs, Cancer, Scorpio and 
Pisces it may be truly said that these three constella- 
tions are apt to be the province of coldly intellectual 



150 The Significance of Birthdays 

people, who weigh and measure everything in a 
decidedly emotionless manner; and this triplicity is 
by far the most conservative of the four. 

The earth nature is motherly, and though very 
practical and often external in its objects and de- 
lights; it signifies the womb of nature, the matrix in 
which gestation, germination and insubation take 
place. The dwellers in the sea, the finny tribes of 
ocean, are called cold-blooded, and so they are when 
contrasted with hot-blooded mammals. Fish always 
stand for cool intellect, and refer to whatever can 
be deduced by rational process. Many distinguished 
persons of great intellectual ability are found in the 
watery domain, but unless very highly unfolded they 
are too critical and fail to understand life as it ap- 
peals to warmer temperaments. 

As fire and water quench each other, so do we 
often see instances of lamentable incompatibility be- 
tween married people ; when one is in the fiery, and 
the other in the watery trigon. If it is discovered in 
families that brothers and sisters are illy adapted one 
to another, it is surely better to help them to gravitate 
to congenial spheres of action, instead of stolidly 
insisting upon keeping a family together, which is 
often done at the expense of health and harmony and 
to the detriment of all concerned. 

We are indebted to Eleanor Kirk's very interesting 
book, "The Influence of the Zodiac Upon Human 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 151 

Life," for a final classification of the twelve signs into 
three groups as follows : 

Aries, Taurus, Gemini and Cancer are the four 
positive signs. Leo, Virgo, Libra and Scorpio, the 
four middle signs. Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius 
and Pisces, the four negative signs. In a picture of 
the Grand Man they stand anatomically as follows: 
Positive parts of the body, head, neck, shoulders and 
breast. Middle portions, all the nutritive, digestive 
and reproductive system. Negative section, the lower 
limbs and feet. Each of these three divisions con- 
tains four signs the first of which is fire; the second, 
earth; the third, air; and the fourth, water. This fin- 
al division makes the four domains practically equal, 
though fire always takes precedence of earth, and air 
takes precedence of water. 

Though from the 21st day of one month to the 
21st day of the next may be broadly stated as the 
period occupied by each sign, a more exact classifica- 
tion reads as follows: Aries, March 20 to April 20; 
Taurus, April 20 to May 21 ; Gemini, May 21 to 
June 2 1 ; Cancer, June 2 1 to July 22 ; Leo, July 22 
to August 22 ; Virgo, August 22 to September 23 ; 
Libra, September 23 to October 23 ; Scorpio, Octob- 
er 23 to November 22 ; Sagittarius, November 22 to 
December 21 ; Capricorn, December 21 to January 
21 ; Aquarius, January 21 to February 20; Pisces, 
February 20 to March 20. Three days at the com- 
mencement of each sign may be allowed for the wan- 



152 The Significance of Birthdays 

ing of the outgoing and the waxing of the incoming 
influence. 

The twelve tribes of Israel as mentioned in the 
forty-ninth chapter of Genesis and in the seventh 
chapter of the book of Revelation are, by some stud- 
ents of the Kabala, connected with the signs in the 
following order : 

Aries — Benjamin. Taurus — Issachar. Gemini 
— Simeon-Levi. Cancer — Zebulun. Leo — -Judah. 
Virgo — Asshur. Libra — Dan. Scorpio — Gad. 
Sagittarius — Joseph. Capricorn— Naphtali. Aqua- 
rius — Reuben. Pisces — Ephraim and Manasseh. 

This designation is in accordance with the words, 
"The first shall be last and the last first." We have 
given this enumeration in response to numerous in- 
quiries. The two orders are simply the heliocentric 
(esoteric) and the geocentric (exoteric). Both are 
correct, but the matter is viewed from opposite stand- 
points. 

In concluding we desire to state plainly to all our 
readers that we have written suggestively to provoke 
further inquiry, not dogmatically as though we were 
settling the matter finally for all mankind. 

Broad hints and general outlines have been given, 
but the multifarious variations from outlined types 
must prove subject matter for constant individual in- 
vestigation. 



(Reprinted from Occult Review, November, 1910.) 
From very early times, certainly since the days of 
the famous Greek philosopher Pythagoras, we all 
know that much importance has been freely assigned 
to names and numbers, and many have been the in- 
genious theories constructed to explain their signifi- 
cance. The number of letters in one's name, and 
especially their arrangement, is forming the topic of 
many a modern, as it formed the theme of many an 
ancient, discourse. Many theorists have recourse to 
the Jewish Kabala and lay much stress upon the 
twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, but the 
twenty-six English letters are now often called into 
requisition, and quite an elaborate system has been 
built up for the convenience of people born in Eng- 
lish-speaking countries and who know nothing of 
Hebrew. According to one system, now much in 
vogue, the twenty-six letters are divided into two col- 
umns of nine letters each, and one of eight letters, 
reading thus: The value of 1 is attributed to a, j, s; 



154 The Significance of Birthdays 

2 to b, k, t ; 3 to c, 1, u ; 4 to d, m, v ; 5 to e, n, w ; 6 to 
f, o, x; 7 to g, p, y; 8 to h, q, z; 9 to i and r. In 
reading the importance of one's name by this method, 
the following course may be pursued: Take as an 
illustration Carolined Crosspuddle. The letters are 
stated as to numerical value thus : C, 3 ; A, 1 ; R, 
9; O, 6; L, 3; 1,9; N, 5; E, 5; D, 4; C, 3; R, 9; 
O, 6;S, 1;S, 1; P, 7; U, 3; D, 4; D, 4; L, 
3 ; E, 5 ; making a total of ninety-one letters, and as 
9 and 1 make 1 this is a name of completeness, as all 
the figures and the circle are represented in it. Now 
though the name is an unusual one it is nevertheless 
one of excellent omen, and according to this numeri- 
cal calculation its import agrees with its obvious sug- 
gestiveness, which is of one who conquers difficulties, 
surmounts obstacles and generally displayes indomi- 
table perserverance. It is notworthy that the three 
letters of the well known name Fox are all of the 
value of 6, but 3 times 6 is 1 8 and 8 and 1 make 9, 
therefore Fox is a powerful name, as 9 is the highest 
numeral. But as it is invariably the case that one has 
a given as well as a family name, different members 
of a Fox family would find their complete names 
adding up very differently; for example, John Fox 
totals 38, as John counts 20 and Fox 1 8. Now 1 1 , 
which is the acknowledged ultimate of 38, is said to 
be one of far more than ordinary value, for 1 1 and 22 
are placed as special ultimates and not further re- 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 155 

duced, as they could be by making 1 1 equal 2 and 22 
equal 4. The reason assignable for this refusal to 
trace them to their lowest conceivable ultimate is that 
o do so would necessitate the reduction of an attained 
ultimate which is not permissible. This can readily 
be seen by illustrating with a name which reaches 
either 2 or 4 by simple first reduction. Any name 
made up of 11 would ultimate in 2, likewise any 
name constituted of 22 as its numerical value would 
ultimate 4. Eleven is called the octave of B, 22 is 
the octave of D, according to the system to which we 
are referring. What's in a name? is a question con- 
tinually raised, and very often quite inconsequently 
dismissed as though there were next to nothing in it, 
but human experience by no means justifies this shal- 
low view. We all know how much stress is laid upon 
name-values in ancient sacred literature. The Old 
Testament has a great deal to say about names being 
enlarged, and in some instances entirely changed, to 
indicate the further spiritual growth of their posses- 
sors. Abraham is a much stronger name than Abram, 
which it superseded, and Israel is a far nobler name 
than Jacob, which it supplanted. In the New Testa- 
ment the same idea is carried out with great emphasis 
in the case of naming the infant John at the time of 
his circumcision, when no one in the family into which 
that child was born had been so called. It is idle to 
say that there is naught but antiquated superstition in 



156 The Significance of Birthdays 

this discussion, for entirely apart from the occultist's 
interior view of the matter we all know how heavily 
handicapped many people are by mean and ugly 
names, and how greatly it is to one's advantage to be 
the possessor of a good name in all senses of the word. 
Time-honored customs, which go on persisting age 
after age, have always something originally to justify 
them, and this fact is clearly evident when we con- 
sider the persistence with which the sons and daugh- 
ters of royal and noble houses are endowed with a 
number of names, while the peasantry of all nations 
have always been satisfied with few and simple ap- 
pellations. The reason for this is very easily traced. 
In the one case many and arduous duties would fall 
to the lot of the child as he or she grew to maturity, 
while in the other the work to be done would be 
simple and monotonous, though often physically se- 
vere. The good old idea of rulership was that it re- 
quired unusual abilities on the part of the rulers, and 
that high position, far from justifying laxity in morals 
coupled with indolence and foolish self-conceit, de- 
manded of all who held high rank that they set the 
noblest possible examples of industry and excellence 
of character to all over whom they were placed. To 
live up to a lofty name is a great and honorable duty 
in these days as well as in times of old. But are not 
names given arbitrarily and even accidentally? many 
will inquire. No, they are not, for nothing occurs by 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 157 

accident, answers the uncompromising occultist, who 
is sufficiently scientific and logical to declare that for 
every effect there must be an efficient cause, and who 
furthermore insists that behind every material or phy- 
sical event there lies an unseen psychic origin. We 
are born when and where we are born in consequence 
of the special mission the incarnating ego is seeking to 
fulfil through incarnation, and the name given to the 
child at birth, or soon after, is an indication of the 
place that soul is to occupy on earth and the nature 
of the work to be accomplished. Then we may well 
ask, can we, or have we any right to change our 
names or to suppress any portion of them? Is a nom 
de plume permissible? To which the following an- 
swer may be given. Our names from birth through 
the comparatively irresponsible years of childhood 
represent what we have to encounter and the raw ma- 
terial with which we have to work; this is imposed 
upon us, at least apparently, without our choice, and 
may be referred to karma ; but as we advance to years 
of discretion and must take responsibilities upon our- 
selves, the right, and indeed the duty, of selection is 
brought home to us, and we are therefore called upon 
to embark upon an ocean of self-responsibility which 
aforetime we could not navigate. The addition of a 
name at confirmation in the Catholic Church is a sur- 
vival of a custom immeasurably older than Christian 
history, and it is one of those impressive ceremonials 



158 The Significance of Birthdays 

which give us to understand that with the approach 
of intellectual maturity a sense of responsibility must 
be impressed upon the youth or maiden as a qualifica- 
tion for the graver duties which must be acknowl- 
edged as strength increases and years advance. It 
is often found that when one has been long 
enduring what is commonly called misfortune, a 
decided run of what is vulgarly styled "better 
luck" follows swiftly upon the adoption of a 
new name, sometimes even from the suppression 
of one's name which has long been made promi- 
nent and the bringing forward of another part 
which has been resting in abeyance. A firm 
name deliberately chosen has a large influence 
on the business conducted over it, as the suggestion 
constantly made by its publication in print, together 
with the frequent setting up of peculiar currents by its 
frequent pronunciation, attunes the business to a cer- 
tain rate of vibration and serves to connect the estab- 
lishment with certain unsuspected influences who are 
attracted, and sometimes even summoned unknow- 
ingly to those who summon them, by the very utter- 
ance of the name. 

Of course the effect of merely casual pronunciation 
of names cannot have the same intense effect which 
is produced by uttering the name with full awareness 
of its value coupled with intent to employ it sys- 
tematically; still, there is very much unconsciously 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 159 

accomplished by the constant reiteration of a name by 
a great many people, even though it be but thought- 
lessly. As there are a few extremely usual English 

names by which multitudes of our compatriots are 
called, it is interesting to see to what special categories 
some of the most widely employed among them be- 
long. George, the name of the present British King, 
is a name whose number is 39, which is reducible to 
1 2 and ultimately to 3, if one wishes to push the ulti- 
mate to uttermost finality. As 1 2 represents the en- 
tire number of the Zodiac and 3 is the triangle, de- 
noting the first equilibrium, the equalization of the 
three planes — physical, mental and moral— -the 
name is one of great power and dignity, and is the 
appropriate name of the patron saint of England who 
has traditionally and mystically "slain the Dragon," 
i.e., overcome the lower elements and won his spurs 
through valiant conquest over the most powerful and 
insidious of foes. Mary, the name of the Queen 
Consort, is numerically 2 1 , which immediately ulti- 
mates in 3. The present King and Queen are, there- 
fore, unitedly 15, according to the higher reckoning, 
the ultimate of which is 6, and 6 also according to 
the lower. Now what is the significance of 6? It 
stands for the interlaced triangle, an emblem ex- 
tremely prominent in Jewish circles ; the present reign 
throughout the British Empire should therefore au- 
gur well for the House of Israel, but as 6 is only 



160 The Significance of Birthdays 

preparatory to 7, which is the Sabbatic numeral, the 
names of our King and Queen united indicate the 
activities of a sixth working day, not the repose of 
a Sabbatic period. Great activity all over the Em- 
pire is suggested by present omens ; great increase in 
wealth and honor and much legislation calculated to 
overthrow old-time limitations and lead the Anglo- 
Saxon race and all who are guided by it to renewed 
prosperity and ever-growing liberty. 

Alfred is a name which numbers 28 and ultimates 
as 1 0, denoting fullness of expression. Edward num- 
bers the same. Albert numbers 22 and ultimates as 

4. Harry numbers 34 and ultimates as 7. Charles 
numbers 30. Emma numbers 14 and ultimates as 

5. Julia numbers 1 7 and ultimates as 8. Hannah 
numbers 28 and ultimates as 10. We might easily 
multiply instances, but what little has been said may 
suffice to induce some readers to look up the quality 
of the names they bear and see whether they may not 
be able to trace a good deal that is obscure in their 
lives to this peculiar origin, Diminutives such as 
Jim, which numbers 14 and ultimates as 5; Jack, 
numbering 7 direct, and Tom, numbering 12 and 
ultimating in 3, are borne by so many boys and young 
men that they must have a great effect upon the rising 
generation. A very ancient system gives the follow- 
ing special value to numbers: 1, unity, simplicity; 
2, duality, versatility; 3, trinity, general adaptability; 



Our Place in the Universal Zodiac 161 

4, quaternity, equity; 5, dexterity, brotherli- 
ness; 6, comprehensiveness; 5, completeness, spiritual 
discernment, reposef ulness ; 8, octave, enterprise, 
sphericity ; 9, aspiration, discovery, achievement ; 
1 0, universality, completeness. Whatever there may 
be in this study, it is certainly a fascinating intel- 
lectual pursuit, and when one seriously takes it up 
there seems no end to the interesting and instructive 
experiments which may be conducted in connection 
with it. The word MONEY numbers 27 and therefore 
totalizes as 9, giving birth to the thought that as 9 
is the highest of our numerals there is no limit to the 
good we can do with wealth, even on the most ex- 
ternal plane, if we do but resolutely determine to 
consecrate its use and acquisition toward furthering 
the ends of general human welfare. 



A very interesting book dealing with this subject 
under the title Numbers, their Magic and Mystery, 
by Dr. Isidore Kosminsky, is supplied by the pub- 
lishers of this book. Paper covers, 30 cents, post free, 
Another book, applying the principle of numbers 
and Kabalistic calculations to Astrology, is Your 
Fortune in your Name, or Kabalistic Astrology, by 
Sepharial, cloth gilt, $1.00, post free, also from the 
same publishing house. 



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account of the longest and hardest struggle for freedom of Christian 
principles that the world has ever known. No such zeal and 
ardor have ever been recorded; no such battles have ever been 
fought in ancient or modern times; no such persecutions, martyr- 
dom and suffering for any cause as those endured by the Crusa- 
ders to whom we owe our beautiful system of Templarism. 

The work is also a record of events in connection with the 
Orders, from those strenuous times to the present date, containing 
the proceedings of Triennial Encampments down to and including 
the 30th, at Saratoga in 1907. Some of these original proceedings 
are very scarce, and only to be found in rare collections. 

Full art canvas No. 22811 " .3.25 

Library sheep. No. 22812 3.50 

Half American Russia. No. 22818 3.75 

Half American Morocco. No. 22813 4.00 

Full American Russia. No. 22819 4.75 

Full American Morocco. No. 22814 5.00 

Full Persian Morocco. No. 22817 8.75 



History of Freemasonry, A Concise. Roht. F. Gould, 

A most reliable comprehensive and valuable book. 559 pgs. 36 
Columns of index. Nearly 200 illustrations, many of them beau- 
tiful half tone engravings. Cloth. No. 22771 2.75 

Library Sheep, No. 22772 4.00 

Half Morocco, No. 22773 3.75 

Full Morocco, No. 22774 4.75 

Levant Morocco, No. 22775 .8.50 

Irish Prince and Hebrew Prophet, a Masonic Tale of the 
Captive Jews and the Ark of the Covenant. A most interest- 
ing book. By the author of "The Jericho Papers." 300 pgs., 

6x91/2, No. 23001 .......1.50 

Lexicon of Freemasonry, containing a definition of all its Com- 
municable Terms, notices of its History, Traditions, and Antiqui- 
ties, and an account of all the Rites and Mysteries of the Ancient 
World. A. G. Mackey, 526 pgs. No. 23161 3.00 

Lights and Shadows of the Mystic Tie. Consisting of 
absorbing Masonic tales — romantic, tragic and humorous; a few of 
which are: The Masonic Breastpin, a thrilling Indian story; Death 
on the Sierra Nevada; Catherine Williams or Husband and Wife; 
The Church Trial, or "Jynin," the Masons; Stone-Squarer's Lodge 
No. 91; The Broken Tessera; Three Buds of Sweet Briar; The 
Echo and the Flute; and more than a hundred other stories, 
sketches, anecdotes, opinions, songs and poems, illustrating the 
character and tendency of Freemasonry, including Robert Burns' 
Farewell to Masons. Rob. Morris and Albert G. Mackey. 624 pgs. 
illustrated, beautifully bound in blue and gold. No. 23181 .... 2.50 

Lodge Goat and Goat Rides, The. More than a thousand 
anecdotes, incidents and illustrations from the humorous side of 
Lodge life. Compiled and edited by James Pettibone. 600 pgs. 

Cloth. No. 23191. 1.50 

Low Twelve. Edward S. Ellis, A. M. A book of thrilling 
and impressive stories of Masonic bravery and loyalty, told with 
that accuracy and charming style which has given Mr. Ellis such 
world-wide popularity. Half-tone Illustrations. No. 23221 .... 1.50 
Full Leather, a fine gift book. No. 23224 . . . . 2.50 

Lost Word Found, The. "The most compelling bit of literature 
yet presented by Dr. Buck, and unlike anything ever written 
concerning the mystery of the Lost Word." J. D. Buck. 32° 

No. 23196 - ,50 



Man of Mount Moriah, The. From Symbolism and Prophecy 
to Sacrifice and Fulfillment — a wonderfully interesting story of the 
Grand Architect at the Building of King Solomon's Temple. 
C M. Boutelle. Beautifully illustrated, followed by forty pages of 
the best Masonic and O. E. S. poetry, including Esther, a sacred 
drama. 334 pgs. Edition after edition has been sold, which en- 
ables us to greatly increase the quality and style of the book for 
serviceable wear and richness of appearance. A choice gift book. 

Half Morocco and full gilt. No. 23488 4.00 

Half Russia and full gilt. No. 23487 3.60 

Half Morocco, marble edge. No. 23483 3.20 

Half Russia, marble edge. No. 23486 2.80 

Full Cloth, marble edge. No. 23481 2.40 

Heavy Paper Sides, marble edge. No. 23485 1.60 

Masonic Gem, A collection of Masonic Odes, Poems, etc. A 
sketch of Esoteric and Exoteric Masonry. Rev. A. E. Alford. 
Illustrated. No. 23541 50 

Masonic Sketch Book, or Gleanings from the Harvest Field of 
Masonic Literature. By E. du Laurans. This book covers a 
great variety of subjects and includes some of the choicest work 
of our best Masonic writers, as well as many valuable and inter- 
esting articles by the author. Full gilt sides and edges. 345 pgs. 
6x9 Illustrated. No. 23291 2.00 

Masonic Token. William T. Anderson. A gift book for all 
seasons. Full gilt sides and edges. Embellished with upwards 
of thirty illustrations, the letter-press being from the pens of a 
large number of our most gifted authors; especially intended for 
Masonic home reading. 289 pgs. No. 23311 2.25 

Memphis, Ancient and Primitive Rite. Origin, Introduction 
and Summary of the History; Excerpts from the Landmarks of the 
Order, Institution in America, Manifestos, Withdrawal from Orient 
of France, Treaty, Confederation, Present Status, Degrees, Seals, 
Emblems etc. J.A.Gotlieb MM M.D., L.L.D. No. 22821 1.00 

Mission of Masonry, The. Rev. Madison C. Peters. Cloth. 
No. 23356 50 

Paper. No. 23360 35 

Morals and Dogma, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite from the 
1st, to 33d Degree, by Albert Pike, Grand Commander. This 
valuable work is the result of years of study, translations from 
ancient and modern languages, and thousands of dollars expendi- 
ture by the author. The Masonic and Theosophical student will 



find in it a mine of knowledge that can be found nowhere else, 
and heretofore within the reach of but few. The greatest book 
ever written or printed about Free Masonry. 861 pgs. 61/2x91/2. 
Cloth binding with gold stamps. No. 23361 . . 5.25 

Mystic Masonry. Explains the Symbols of Freemasonry and 
their connection with the Greater Mysteries of Antiquity, in which, 
for centuries, have been concealed the grandest achievements in 
knowledge ever gained by man, that, through the efforts of Free- 
masons, may be and are being understood and restored to the 
world. J. D. Buck 32°. Illustrated. 260 pgs. No. 23421 . . . . 1.50 

Poetry of Freemasonry* Rob. Morris, L. L. D. t Masonic Poet 
Laureate, with Portrait and Biography of the Author, by his son. 
Introduction by the Author, and his favorite poem — "We Meet Up- 
on the Level, and Part Upon the Square" — in the original words 
and later changes, followed by over 500 poems, notes and illustra- 
tions, 400 pgs. Of finest book paper. Beautifully embossed 

cover, 8 x l0 1 /2 inches. No. 23281 2.75 

Gold and silver leaf stamping, gilt edges. No. 23285 3.50 

Rose Croix, The. A story of Two Hemispheres. A most 
interesting novel. David Tod Gilliam. 369 pgs. No. 23946.. 1.60 

Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, The, or Christian Occult 
Science. An Elementary Treatise upon man's Past Evolution, 
Present Constitution and Future Development. By Max Heindel, 
who includes a note of thanks to Dr. Rudolf Steiner and Dr. Alma 
Von Brandis. "Prove all things." — Paul. 5V2 x 7Vl 536 pages 
14 of Index, Color plate, Illustrations, Diagrams, etc. With Red 
under Gilt Edges, Green Cloth, Gold and Color Stamps. No. 
23896 (A Master Work, worth many times its cost.) .... 1.15 

Rosicrucian Philosophy, The. In Questions and Answers. 
A Sequel to Cosmo— -Conception. Life on Earth, Life after Death, 
Bible Teachings, Sayings of Christ, Phenomena, Initiation, 
Astrology — -true and false, Prayer, Freewill, etc. Illustrated. 
Seven Days of Creation and the Four Great Initiations. 
Max Heindel. No. 24391 115 

Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries. Founded on 
their manifestoes, and on facts and documents collected from the 
writings of initiated brethren. Hargrave Jennings Illustrated. 

464 pages. 6x9 No. 23881.... ..3.50 

Sacred Mysteries. Freemasonry in times anterior to the Temple 
of Solomon. Relics of Mayas and Quiches, 11,500 years ago, 
their relation to the Sacred Mysteries of Egypt, Greece, Chaldea 
and India. Augustus Le Plongeon. No. 23956 2.50 



Scarlet Book of Freemasonry. Contains an authentic and 
thrilling history of the seizure, imprisonment and martyrdom of 
Free Masons and Knights Templar from A. D. 1275 to the pres- 
ent time; history of the life of the renowned philosopher, Pytha- 
goras, his extraordinary career and tragic death; an account of 
the late remarkable discoveries of Masonic emblems under the 
pedestal of an ancient obelisk in Egypt, together with a case of 
recent persecution and death in that country; also an account of 
the recent discovery of an ancient temple in Mexico with Masonic 
emblems. Beautifullv illustrated. 548 pages. 6I/2 x 9 

In fine satin cloth and gilt. No. 23981 .3.00 

Morocco, gilt edges, very rich. No. 23984 ,4.00 

Signet of King Solomon, or the Freemason's Daughter. 
A. C. Arnold. A charming and fascinating story of a "Knight of 
the Temple" in modern times. Beautifully illustrated. 288 pgs,, 

6 x 91/2. No. 23976 1.50 

Signs and Symbols. Dr. George Oliver. Illustrated and ex- 
plained in a series of twelve lectures. No, 23986 1.50 

Singular Story of Freemasonry, The. A most attractive 
concise and interesting little book. W. B' Sibley. 4x6, 100 pgs. 

No. 23916 75 

Solomon's Temple. Its History and Structure. Rev. W. Shaw 

Caldecott, No. 24026 2.50 

Spirit of Freemasonry. Comprising Lectures on the State of 
Freemasonry in the Eighteenth Century, the Design, Rites, Cere- 
monies and Institutions of the Ancients, Nature of the Lodge, 
Furniture, Apparel and Jewels of Masons, Temple at Jerusalem 
Geometry, Master Mason's Order, Secrecy of Masons, Charity, 
Brotherly Love, Occupations, and a Corollary; followed by an 
Appendix containing Charges, Addresses and Orations on various 
Masonic occasions. William Hutchinson. With copious notes, 
critical and explanatory, of great value, by the Rev. George Oliver. 

No, 24021. 1.50 

Swedenborg Rite, and the Great Masonic Leaders of the 
Eighteenth Century. The Masonic career of Swedenborg and 
his followers, and the relation between the symbolic system of 
Swedenborgianism and Modern Freemasonry. Samuel Beswick. 

No. 24051 „ 1.00 

Symbolism of Freemasonry. Illustrating and Explaining its 
Science and Philosophy, its Legends, Myths and Symbols. Mackey. 

360 pgs.. No. 24071 , , , 2.25 



Symbol of Glory, showing the Object and End of Freemasonry, 
in a valedictory and thirteen lectures : Masonic Science, Poetry 
and Philosophy, Knowledge, Doctrines, Circle and Parallel Mean- 
ing, Great Lights, and Masonic Ladder, Theological Virtues and 
Masonry, Clouded Canopy and Ladder Symbols, Application, 
Blazing Star, Symbol of Glory, etc. Rev. George Oliver. 298 pgs., 
cloth, black and gold stamps. No. 24061 1.50 

Tradition, Origin and Early History of Freemasonry. 
An elaborate account of the traditions which form the basis of the 
degrees in Freemasonry and their coincidence with the Ancient 
Mysteries; also the origin of the Society of Operative Masons and 
its transformation into a Speculative Fraternity; with a brief history 
of the Order, and its rituals and customs. By A. T. C. Pierson 
and Godfrey W. Steinbrenner. 540 pgs. 6^2 x 9|4 Illustrated. 

No. 24213 . 2.50 

Washington and His Masonic Compeers. An interesting 
and reliable work, abounding in facts and incidents pertaining to 
Washington's Masonic life. A part of his history, entirely omitted 
by most of his biographers, brought to light by diligent research 
among the Masonic records and documents of the past century. 
Containing fine Masonic portrait of Washington and numerous 
other illustrations. No. 24301 1.75 

A SELECTED ASSORTMENT OF BOOKS 

Historical, Fraternal, Symbolical, Mystic, Astrologic, 

Occult, Psychic, Spiritualistic, Optimistic, Philosophic, 

Masonic, New Thought, Etc. 

Ahrinziman, The Strange Story of. As told by himself, 
after a period of over 2000 years; through the super-conscious- 
ness of Anita Silvani. The philosophy of this great Mystic and 
Persian Ruler, what Life hath taught him of the soul — on Earth, 
in the Abyss, and in the Heavens — A New Pilgrims Progress 
Arabian Nights, Paradise Lost, Wanderings in Spirit, and Para- 
dise Won. Notes on Obsession and Mediumship. Preface by 
Frederick W. Thurstan, M. A. of Christ's College, Cambridge. 

"To each one comes life's lesson in a different form: Let 
him that would learn the meaning of this story attend to these 
words that he may the better understand, and let him that is the 
idle hearer of a tale pass them by." Two volumes, combined 
in one book of 49 chapters. Illustrated with a portrait of Ahr- 
inziman and a Vision in the Desert. 284 pages 5^2 x IVl No. 

22026 .'.....■.„..„„■, • , 1.00-- 



Altar in the Wilderness, The, In seven chapters — The Go! Jen 
Age, The Exile, Life in Death, The Conflict. The Wilderness, 
Illumination, The Temple, — representing the Seven Spiritual Ages 

of Man. Ethelbert Johnson. Cloth, No. 24231, 50 

Paper, No. 24235 25 

Ben Hur, a Tale of the Christ. The Great Christian Drama 
Gen. Lew Wallace. No. 22076 1.50 

Book of the Master, The. A clue to the mysterious religion of 
Ancient Egypt. W. Marsham Adams. Cloth, No. 22166 . . . 1.25 

Brotherhood. Nature's Law. Burcham Harding. No. 22176 .50 

Brother of the Third Degree. An interesting and facinating 
story of the thrilling experiences of an earnest occult student on 
his way upward to those sublime heights of Universal Love and De- 
votion to Humanity, attained only by the true Initiates of the Great 
White Brotherhood — a vivid picture of life in the famous occult 
schools of Paris and the Far East; explaining much which has so 
long been veiled in mystery. W. L. Carver. 377 pages, Cloth. 

No. 22161. 1.00 

Constructive Psychology. The Constructive Principle of 
Character Building. Dr. J. D. Buck. 32° No. 22296 1.00 

Culture of Concentration. Occult Powers and their acquire- 
ment. Wm. Q. Judge. No. 22266 10 

Discovery of the Soul, The. Throwing light on the path of 
progressive man; leading through mysticism to the discovery of 
those unused powers within the soul, which duly appropriated 
give expression to the Divine in Man. Floyd B. Wilson. 

No. 22306 1.00 

Harmonics of Evolution. This work marks out a new path in 
the treatment of the so-called Occult in Nature, attempting to explain 
rather than to mystify and to illustrate and elucidate the correlation 
of spiritual and physical forces in Nature. Florence Huntley. 

463 pgs. No. 22716 2.00 

Hermes and Plato. The mysteries of Egypt and of Eleusis. 
Edouard Share. No. 22856 1.00 

Initiation, The Way of, or How to Attain Knowledge of the 
Higher Worlds. Rudolf St einer, Ph.D. Americanized from the trans- 
lation by Max Gsyi. Notes by Edouard Schure. A most valuable 
and natural guide in a matter between you and yourself. New 

large type. No. 24276 1.00 



Initiation and its Results* Rudolf Steiner, RL D. A sequel 
to the Way of Initiation. These works in the plainest and clearest 
way, give more instruction in occult knowledge than any yet 
published. Mystics, and the Theosophic Press indorse them in 
the highest terms. New large type. No. 22976 1.00 

Initiation and Mysteries. Rudolf Steiner. No. 50910. 1.00 

In Tune with the Infinite. Ralph Waldo Trine. Bound in 
Japanese style or special silk. No. 22996 » .. 1.25 

Isis Unveiled. About 1500 pages. Portrait of the Author. 
H. P. Blavatsky. No. 23016 2 Vols. 6x9.... 4.00 and 7.00 

Josephus. The authentic works and life of this great Jewish his- 
torian and celebrated warrior. Translated by Wm. Winston, M. A. 
1055 pgs., attractively bound and illustrated. 7V^x9|/2« 

No. 23061 1.75 

Kingdom of Love, The. Henry Frank Beautifully ex- 
pressed, wholesome, helpful and inspiring essays. 245 pgs. 

No. 23086. 1.00 

Koran, The. Commonly called the Alkoran of Mohammed (the 
Mohammedian Bible). 559 pgs. No. 23071 1.50 

Krishna and Orpheus, the Great Initiates of the East and West. 
Edouard Schure. No. 23106 1.25 

Last Great Initiate, Jesus the. Edouard Schure. The Essenes, 
St. John, etc. No. 23056 1.00 

Life and Writings of Dr. Rob't. Fludd, the English 
Rosicrucian. /. B. Craven. Cloth. No. 23286 2.50 

Light on the Path. A treatise for the personal use of those 
who are unfamiliar with the Eastern Wisdom but desire to enter 

within its influence. CM. Cloth. No 23166 50 

Leather. No. 24167 75 

Man Limitless. "A study of the possibilities of man when act- 
ing under infinite guidance with which he is in absolute touch." 

Floyd B. Wilson. No. 23531 1.25 

Mastery of Mind in the Making of a Man, The. A 

searching analysis and exposition of the power of mind in body- 
building and the forming of personality. Henry Frank. 250 pgs. 

No. 23306 1.00 

Myrtle Baldwin. A novel of great interest, especially to the 
Fraternity, as it is full of Masonic principles. Bro. Charles Clark 
Munn, author of The Hermet, etc. 510 pgs. 5 1 /4x7 1 /2» Illus- 
trated, green cloth, black and gold stamps. An excellent gift. 

No. 23586 , 1.50 






Mystical Life of Ours, This. Ralph Waldo Trine. 
No. 24236 1.00 

Occult Science in India, and among the Ancients, with an 
account of their Mystic Initiations and History of Spiritualism. 

Louis Jacolliot. Cloth. No. 23716 1 .50 

Occultist's Travels, An. Willy Reichel. Cloth. 
No. 23726 1.00 

Paths to Power. "The struggling will gain strength — the 
doubting assurance — and the despairing hope, from this book." 
Fifteenth edition. Floyd B. Wilson. No. 23796 1.00 

Philosophy of Fire, The. "There is nothing new under the 
sun." Fire Philosophy is the foundation of all True Initiation, and 
all Mystic and Occult Fraternities, as well as the Secret Doctrine 
and Ancient Mysteries. Atlantis, its Beauty, and its Fall. The 
Templars, and Fire Philosophers. The Therapeutae and Essenes 
and their Initiation. Second and very much enlarged edition, 
contains the Rosicrucian Fire Philosophy according to Jennings. 
/?. S. Clymer. About 250 pgs. Silk Cloth. Symbol in gold. 

No. 23806 1.50 

Pythagoras and the Delphic Mysteries. Edouard Schure. 
No. 23811 LOO 

Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx. A most interesting 
and valuable work — the result of extensive research among the 
ruined palaces, tombs and temples, and careful study of the signs, 
symbols and ancient manuscripts of the Mayas of prehistoric 
Yucatan ; showing evidences of a civilization antedating, by cen- 
turies, that of the Eastern Hemisphere, and giving a reasonable 
solution of that mystery of the ages— the Origin and Meaning of 
the Egyptian Sphinx. Augustus Le Plongeon. Beautifully illustrated 
with full page half-tone prints, from photographs taken by the 
author while exploring those ancient remains. No. 23851. Reduced 
from the Authors price 6.00 to 4.75 

Queen Moo's Talisman. The Fall of the Maya Empire. A 
beautiful Poem with Introduction and Explanatory Argu- 
ment. Alice Le Plongeon. Profusely illustrated. Cloth. 

No. 23841 1.50 

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, The. With 12 full page illus- 
trations in colors and tinted border designs, 6x9. Deckel edge, 

No. 23936 1.25. Watered Silk, No. 23940 2.00 

Limp Leather, No, 23937 2.00 



Secret Doctrines The. The Synthesis of Science, Religion 
and Philosophy. 6x9 About 1500 pgs with Index. Vols. I 

and II No. 24066. . . 12.50 Vol. Ill No. 24067. . . 5.00 

Secret Doctrine, Abridged. Hillarl No. 24031... 2.00 

Sermon on the Mount, and other Extracts from the New 

Testament. A verbatim translation from the Greek with notes on 

the Mystical or Arcane Sense. James M. Pryse. Cloth. 

No. 24076 60 

Servant in the House, The. A beautiful and uplifting drama 
of Brotherly Love Charles Rann Kennedy. No. 22966.. . . 1.25 

Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, The. The wonderful 
arts of the old wise Hebrews, taken from the Mosaic books of the 
Kabbalah and the Talmud, for the good of mankind. 100 pgs. 
Paper, No. 24040 75 

Story of the Other Wise Man, The. A beautiful nar- 
rative. Henry Van Dyke. Exquisitely printed and bound. Cloth, 
No. 23961, .50. and Limp Leather. No. 23962 1.00 

Temple, The. Its Ministry and Services at the Time of Jesus 
Christ. Rev. Dr. Eidersheim. 308 pgs. No. 24201 1.50 

The Tabernacle. Its History and Structure. Rev. W. Shaw 
Caldecott. Cloth, 5*/ 4 x 7^2, 230 pgs. No. 24176 1.75 

Theosophy. An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of 
the World and the Destination of Man, The Constitution of the 
Human Being, Re-Embodiment of the Spirit and Destiny. The 
Three Worlds, The Path of Knowledge. Translated from the Ger- 
man. No. 50665 1.00 

Thoughts for the Occasion. A Manual of Historical Data and 
Facts, Helpful in Suggesting Themes and in Outlining Addresses 
for the. Observance of Timely or Special Occasions of the Ma- 
sonic, Odd Fellows and various other Orders. Compiled by 
Franklin Noble, D. D. 576 pgs. cloth. No. 24216. ..... .2.00 

Through Silence to Realization. This work embodies a 
system of instruction for mental growth and attainment of ideals. 
Floyd B. Wilson. 5V 2 x7V 2 . No. 24241 1.00 

Voice of the Silence, and Other Chosen Fragments from the 
Book of the Golden Precepts for the Daily Use of Lanoos. H. P. 
Blavatsky. Cloth. No. 24266, .50. Leather. No. 24267 ,75 



W. J. COLVILLE'S BOOKS. 

A Selection of the Most Popular Works by This Great Author and Well 
Known Lecturer in Europe, America, and Australia. 

Ancient Mystery and Modern Revelation. A wonderful 
new work. By W. J. Colville. — The book, which is of con- 
siderable size, aims to introduce selected gems from Oriental 
literature together with philosophical interpretations of the most 
disputed Bible texts, and also presents highly condensed 
biographical accounts of the Esoteric Schools of Antiquity and the 
characteristics of their founders. To every liberal-minded Bible 
student and to all who are investigating the psychic problems of 
to-day the work as a whole must appeal as one of more than 

average interest . Cloth. No. 24346 1.00 

Six copies to any single address on receipt of $5.00* 

Auras and Colors. Four Lectures. W. J. Colville. Paper 25c 
A full outline description of the Significance of Color and a clear 
explanation of the nature and development of the Human Aura. 

Birthdays, The Significance of, or Our Place in the Univer- 
sal Zodiac. W. J. Colville Cloth and Gilt. No. 22192 .75 
Leatherette. No. 22191 50 

Dashed Against the Rock. A scientific novel, illustrated 
with many remarkable diagrams. W. J. Colville. Cloth. 

No. 22316 75 

ESSAYS : 

Concentration of Thought 22276 .10 

Human Aura 50900 .10 

Law of Attraction 50440 .10 

Law of Success 50450 .10 

Law of Suggestion 50455 .10 

Sleep, Dreams and Visions 50460 .10 

What is Genius 50465 .10 

Words of Power 50445 .10 

These Essays are on live topics very clearly setting forth practical 
mental methods for conquering obstacles and making the most 

of life generally any 3 of the above Essays for 25 Cents 

Fate Mastered-Destiny Fulfilled* Three stirring essays on 
live issues. A very tasteful presentation volume. W. J. Colville, 

Cloth: No % 22476 30 

Glints of Wisdom, or Helpful Sayings for Busy Moments. Ab- 
stracts from Lectures by W. J. Colville. An encyclopedia of 
psychological laws contained in an endless variety of subject. 

Cloth No. 22671. .75. Paper No. 22375 30 



Health from Knowledges or the Law of Correspondences as 
Applied to Healing. W. J. Cohille. Cloth, No. 22741 75 
Paper No. 22744. . . e .30 

Life and Power from Within. An excellent book, embracing 
the most advanced mental-physical teaching and the simplest rules 
for the guidance of daily life, according to New Thought standards. 

W. J. Cohille. Cloth. No. 23151 1.00 

Living Decalogue, The. 12 Expository Lectures. W. J. 
Cohille Leatherette. No. 23156 50 

Lectures, by W. J. Cohille, on various subjects : Atlantis, The 
Way of Initiation, Initiation and its Results. Symbolism— Its use 
and Value, etc. Send for list, each 10/. 3 for 25 

Mental Therapeutics, Elementary Text Book of . Twelve 
Practical Lessons. W. J. Cohille. No. 22420 25 

Old and New Psychology. Twenty-four chapters, including 
explanatory essays on many subjects of vital interest to all teachers 
and students. W. J. Cohille.Cloth. No. 23766 1.00 

Onesimus Templeton. A vivid romance, tracing the evolution 
of a soul from bondage to liberty. W. J. Cohille. Cloth. 

No. 23771 50 

Throne of Eden* The. Twenty-six chapters presenting im- 
portant teachings entrusted to the writer's charge ; also a record 
of extensive travel in the Southern Hemisphere; and a rational 
system of preventing as well as healing diseases. W. J. Cohille. 

Cloth. No. 24186 1.00 

Universal Spiritualism. Spirit Communion in all ages among 
all people. The work has two distinctive features: (1st) A 
resume of the Spiritual faith and practice of Egypt, India, Persia, 
Greece, Rome, China, Japan and other ancient nations, not ex- 
cepting Europe, during Christian centuries. (2nd) A summary 
of recent experiences in America, Great Britain, Australia, France, 
Germany, Italy and other modern lands, all tending to show the 
persistent continuity of spiritual revelation. Clairvoyance, Tele- 
pathy and Psychic Phenomena in general are dealt with in sepa- 
rate chapters at the close of the volume, which extends to 352 
pages, making it a highly useful text-book for all who are 
interested in the question of human immortality. W. J. Cohille. 

Cloth. No. 24256 1.00 



JAMES ALLEN'S BOOKS. 

A Foreword. "I looked upon the world, and saw that it was 
shadowed by sorrow and scorched by the fierce fires of suffer- 
ing. I looked for the cause, but could not find it until I looked 
within, and there found both the cause and the self-made nature 
of the cause. I looked again, deeper, and found the remedy I 
found one Law, the Law of Love; one Life, the Life of adjust- 
ment to that Law: one Truth, the Truth of a conquered mind and 
a quiet and obedient heart. And I dreamed of writing a book 
which should help men and women, rich or poor, learned or un- 
learned, worldly or unworldly, to find within themselves the source 
of all success, all happiness, all accomplishment, all truth: And 
the dream remained with me, and at last became substantial, and 
now I send it forth into the world on its mission of healing and 
blessedness, knowing that it cannot fail to reach the homes a n d 
hearts of those who are waiting and ready to receive it." 

As a Man Thinketh. Inspiring and helpful "New Thought." 

The Path of Prosperity. A way leading out of undesir- 
able conditions to health, success, power, abounding happiness 
and the realization of prosperity. 

Out from the Heart. Most optimistic and uplifting. 

Entering the Kingdom. That heavenly kingdom within 
the heart of man, where perfect trust, knowledge, peace and love 
await all who will enter its Golden Gateways. 

The Way of Peace. It's realization and attainment. 

The Heavenly Life. How to attain its supreme happiness 
in this life, on this earth, here and now. 

Morning and Evening Thoughts. Allen's rare jewels. 

Through the Gate of Good. Leading from the complex- 
ities of ignorance and formalism to the joyful simplicity of Enlight- 
enment and Faith. 

Any of the above in either style of binding as follows: 
Paper Covers, size 4|4x7/4 " " -15 

Cloth Binding, " " " - " " " " .50 

eather Binding, ,/D 

Watered Silk, " " " " " " " " .75 

Special Gift Editions, with colored borders, 5 1 /2x7%, imbossed .75 

Life Triumphant. Man's Divine Destiny. Cloth. 1.00 

From Poverty to Power. The Path of Prosperity and 
Way of Peace. The two books in 1 vol 1.00 

Order and read one of the books — say The Path of Prosperity, and 
you'll ask the price per dozen, wanting all friends to have one. 



In the Quarries. 

There lie many gems of eloquence, many sparkling rays of genius, 
many practical thoughts and expressions, which if brought to the 
surface would prove of essential service to the Craft. These val- 
uable treasures should not be left to lie in the rubbish and be 
covered with the dust of ages and forgotten. These writings of 
the wisest and best Masonic scholars, words of wisdom expressed 
by men of age and experience, ought to be garnered into store- 
houses where all can have access whence to draw "more light" 
to illuminate the pathway of the worker in the Masonic quarries. 
A library of rich treasures of Craft literature, would prove of 
essential benefit to the seeker after knowledge, and would be to 
him a school of instruction, whence he could derive inspiration as 
refreshing as that to the weary traveler who slakes his thirst at the 
fountain of sparkling waters. — Comps. George J. Gardner and 
Charles T. Mitchell. — Cor. Report Grand Chapter, New York, 1890. 

Directions for Ordering. 

Send Express or Post Office Money Order for the amount of your 
purchase, and the goods will be sent immediately, subject to ap- 
proval. They can be exchanged or returned when your money 
will be refunded; or, by sending one-fourth of the amount, on de- 
posit, they will be sent by express subject to inspection and ap- 
proval. Or if desired for use on our Circulating Library Plan; 
send us the price of the book, and we will prepay postage to 
you. After reading return it to us carefully protected and we 
will return the money (except on paper bindings,) less the post- 
age we have paid on it, and 10 °/o for the first month's use, and 
5 °fo for each additional month. For further information regard- 
ing "Library Plan" see last page. 

All goods are guaranteed to be as represented. 



CIRCULATING LIBRARY. 

(FREE READING) (HOME READING) 

For our many readers, who have no room for a collection of 
books, yet wish to become conversant with Masonry, its Origin, 
History, Symbolism and Objects, or Theosophic, Mystic, Occult and 
New Thought literature, we have set aside several well filled cases, 
containing the latest and best, as well as many rare, old and out-of- 
print books, on these subjects. 

We invite you to consult them freely at the library, without charge 
or to use them at your homes at the rate of ten per cent of their 
value for the first thirty days, and an additional five per cent for 
each month thereafter — which will cover the expense of wrapping, 
book-keeping, etc. — Thus, for a comparatively small item of cost you 
can add to your store of knowledge, for greater usefulness and per- 
sonal enjoyment. 

As time and carfare is an important item, you can order the 
books to be sent through the mail or express, by enclosing stamps or 
money order equaling their value, which will be refunded, less the 
percentage, when the books are returned. 

Readers in any part of the United States can take advantage of 
the mail rates- — Books — Ys lb. for one cent, — which we advance by 
prepaying them to your express or post office, deducting the same 
when refunding balance. 

To secure books on the Circulating Library Plan, order the 
books in the usual way, send Money Order equivalent to the value 
of the book and state that you wish them on the library plan. 

Trusting you will find it convenient to make use of the books at 
the library or try a selection from the list for your evenings at home, 

We are, yours fraternally, 

Macoy Publishing & Masonic Supply Co. 

45 John Street, New York, U. S. A. 









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